Article Text
Abstract
Objectives Football has the highest sports participation (10.6%) in Ireland ahead of its Gaelic counterpart (3.9%). Research into injury incidence and patterns in Irish football is non-existent. The aim of this study was to conduct a prospective injury audit of League of Ireland (semiprofessional) footballers during the 2014 season (8 months, 28 games).
Methods A total of 140 semiprofessional League of Ireland footballers were prospectively followed between March and November 2014. Data were collected in accordance with the international consensus on football injury epidemiology.
Results The injury rate was 9.2/1000 hour exposure to football (95% CI 6.2 to 12.9, p<0.05). Players were at a higher risk of injury during a match compared with training (23.1 (95% CI 15.2 to 31.3) vs 4.8 (95% CI 2.2 to 7.7)/1000 hours, p<0.05). Injuries were most common during non-contact activity (54.6%), mainly running (30.9%), and occurred almost three times more often in the second half (56% vs 21%, p<05). Strains (50.1%) and sprains (20.3%) were the most common injury types, and the thigh region was injured most often (28.3%).
Conclusions The prevalence of injury in League of Ireland football is similar to that of European professional football, although the incidence of injury is higher. The incidence of injury is in line with that of Dutch amateur football.
- Injury
- Football
- Epidemiology
- Muscle Damage/injuries
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Footnotes
Contributors NF collected and analysed the data. PF wrote the manuscript. GJ conducted further data analysis. AJ reviewed and edited the manuscript.
Competing interests None declared.
Ethics approval Edge Hill University.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement Research materials related to the paper including data can be accessed by contacting the corresponding author (PF).