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Epidemiology in Professional Footballers

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Book cover Football Traumatology

Abstract

Football is an occupation with a high risk of injury and it has been showed that injuries can affect team performance. Preventing injuries is therefore vital and epidemiology is the first step in order to develop an effective prevention program. In early studies, the differences in injury definition and in methodology have created difficulties of results comparison. A consensus of definitions in football epidemiological studies has regulated more recent surveys. At professional level, players have, in average, at least one to two injuries per season. They occurred mainly during games when the risk of injury is around five times higher than during training. The most common location of injury is the thigh, followed by knee while the most common injury type is strain, followed by sprain. The most common subtype of injury is hamstring strain while ACL rupture continues to attract the interest of researchers and clinicians because of its long time to return to play and its possible influence of future injuries. This is particulary evident in women football.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aspetar – Qatar Orthopedic and Sport Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar

    Cristiano Eirale

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  1. Cristiano Eirale
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Correspondence to Cristiano Eirale .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Knee Orthopaedics and Sport Traumatology Unit, Humanitas Research-IRCCS, Milan, Italy

    Piero Volpi

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Eirale, C. (2015). Epidemiology in Professional Footballers. In: Volpi, P. (eds) Football Traumatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18245-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18245-2_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-18244-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-18245-2

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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