A 15-Year Prospective Epidemiological Account of Acute Traumatic Injuries During Official Professional Soccer League Matches in Japan

Abstract

Long-term surveillance and statistical feedback of injury characteristics to organization members were considered effective in improving safer play awareness among players and for referees to reduce injury incidence, particularly foul play-related injuries.

The assessment of neuromuscular fatigue during 120 min of simulated soccer exercise

“…Thus, we consider it likely that the additional reductions in MVC following ET are related to central fatigue, which were not detectable by the measurement tools of the study. Taken together, these data support the previous conclusions regarding central fatigue and soccer performance (Rampinini et al 2011) and, in part, can offer an explanation for the reduced technical and physical performance (Harper et al 2016b(Harper et al , 2014, and increased risk of injury (Aoki et al 2012), known to occur during ET.…”

“…Extra time elicited further reductions in MVC compared to FT (Fig. 2a), a finding which might offer some insight as to why technical performance and injury risk are also known to be affected during this period (Aoki et al 2012;Harper et al 2014). In a separate investigation, the loss in maximal force generating capacity of the knee-extensors following the performance of a simulated protocol was not recovered 72 h post-exercise (Thomas et al 2017).…”

“…Recently, negative impacts of this additional period of play have been shown on technical (Harper et al 2014) and physical (Penas et al 2015;Russell et al 2015) performance, as well as aspects of metabolism and hydration status (Harper et al 2016a, b, d). These negative consequences are concurrent with the greatest occurrence of contact related injuries during this time (Aoki et al 2012). Participation in soccer results in high levels of metabolic (Rampinini et al 2011), mechanical (Akenhead et al 2013), and perceptual stress (Impellizzeri et al 2004).…”

“…Further research is required to elucidate the aetiology of fatigue during soccer, both during regulation 90 min games, and for tournament scenarios where ET periods are common. The potential accumulation of fatigue incurred by ET might explain the previously observed performance reductions (Harper et al 2014) and increased injury incidence (Aoki et al 2012). Furthermore, practitioners working in professional soccer have recently highlighted that understanding fatigue responses following ET performance is an important area for future research (Harper et al 2016c).…”

Lower Injury Rates for Newcomers to Professional Soccer

“…15,18 Similarly, some studies showed no difference in injury rates between playing positions, 7,8,18 while others found an increased injury rate for midfielders 1,4 or forwards, 2 and lower injury rates among goalkeepers. 3,4 Inclusion of individual exposure to training and match play in the analyses is less common, and studies have often used different cutoffs for age categorization, 5,15 two factors that may contribute to the contradictory findings regarding the association between age and injury rates in professional soccer. Studies addressing playing position and injury rate are also limited by a lack of individual exposure registration, and many of them have small samples or have included match injuries only.…”