Young female players in European handball have a very high injury incidence, up to 50 injuries per 1000 hours of game. More than half of these injuries happen without any external cause. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of an intervention programme designed to reduce the number of injuries in young female players in European handball, with special emphasis on injuries in the lower extremities. The programme was created using elite athlete training programmes and those designed for rehabilitation of injured athletes with functional instability of their ankles and rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament. It included the use of an ankle disk for 10–15 min at all practice sessions, for one 10‐month season (August 1995‐May 1996). Twenty‐two teams participated in the study, and were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Eleven teams with 111 players were randomised to the intervention group and 11 teams with 126 players to the control group. Data were analysed using a t‐test for continuous variables, chi2‐analysis and Fisher's exact test for dichotomous variables and multivariate methods to determine odds‐ratios. The results indicated that using the intervention programme decreased the numbers of both traumatic and overuse injuries significantly. The differences in injuries between the groups were 80% during games and 71% during practice. In addition, the players in the control group had a 5.9 times higher risk of acquiring an injury than the players in the intervention group.

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature, extent and severity of sports injuries in young female players in European team handball and to identify the etiological factors involved in the injuries. Twenty-two teams with 217 players, aged 16-18 years, participated in the study. A very high injury incidence during games was observed, with 40.7 injuries/ 1000 hours of game. Backplayers had the highest incidence (54.8/1000 hours), which is five times higher than any previously recorded injury incidence in players in European team handball. We found that 92.9% of injuries were traumatic and 7.1% were from overuse. One-hundred and twenty-four of the 21 1 injuries were traumatic injuries of the lower extremities. Of these 63 (51%) were without contact with an opponent. The study confirmed that European team handball is a sport that has a very high injury rate, especially regarding young female players. Field position and earlier injuries are major risk factors, with an earlier injury being the single highest risk factor and with backplayers having a significantly higher number of injuries than players in other field positions.