Risk Factors for Recurrent Injuries in Male Amateur Soccer Players: A Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: With around 265 million participants, soccer is the most popular sport in the world including both sexes and across all age groups. Consequently, soccer also has one of the highest injury incidence rates leading to high medical costs, work absenteeism, reduced performance of teams and personal suffering of the injured player. Recurrent injuries account for 12 to 35% of all soccer-related injuries. Recurrent injuries also take extended rehabilitation periods compared to index injuries, causing longer absence of play. In order to implement adequate preventive measures, risk factors for recurrent injuries have to be determined. This is the first study analysing potential risk factors for recurrent injuries in male amateur soccer players.

Study design: Prospective Cohort Study

Methods: Male amateur soccer players between 18 and 40 years playing at first division level participated in this study. Information on baseline characteristics, injury data and exposure data were recorded. All players with an index injury were used for analysis. Players who sustained a recurrent injury were compared to players who did not sustain a recurrent injury. Significant predictors in the model were determined by a manual backward stepwise logistic regression method.

Results: Multivariate and univariate analyses on age, BMI, years of experience, history of injury, intervention ‘The FIFA11’, playing position, playing surface, training exposure and match exposure were not significantly associated with increased recurrent injury risk.

Conclusion: This study aimed to identify risk factors for recurrent injury in adult male amateur soccer players but found no significant predictors. Future studies on risk factors should focus on subgroups with similar aetiology over multiple consecutive seasons of play.