Heading and risk of injury situations for the head in professional German football: a video analysis of over 150,000 headers in 110,000 match minutes

Weber, J. Robert; Reinsberger, Claus; Krutsch, Volker; Seiffert, Robin; Huber, Lorenz; Alt, Volker; Krutsch, Werner

doi:10.1080/24733938.2022.2114602

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…This was also shown by Weber et al. who compared the heading frequencies of the German Bundesliga to those of the 2nd Bundesliga (Weber, Reinsberger, et al., 2022). We assumed that national teams, and teams which take part in international competitions, perform at a higher level of play, and we also concluded that the heading frequency decreased with increasing level of play.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

“…Compared to the international games, most critical incidents were registered in the midfield. However, the overall low frequency of injury situations may have influenced these results (Weber, Reinsberger, et al., 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a prospective cohort study, 45 international football matches with German participation were analyzed using video analysis by using existing questionnaires (Weber, Ernstberger, et al., 2022; Weber, Reinsberger, et al., 2022) and compared to a data set of the German Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga. Video material included matches from FIFA World Cup ( n = 3), UEFA European Championship qualifiers ( n = 8), UEFA Nations League ( n = 4), UEFA Champions League ( n = 15), and UEFA Europe League ( n = 15).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First data from Weber et al. of German professional male football showed a lower heading burden than estimated in the existing literature (Putukian et al., 2000, p. 107; Straume‐Naesheim et al., 2005; Weber, Reinsberger, et al., 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Video analysis of heading and risk of head injury situations in elite international men's football: Does the frequency of headers increase with the level of play?

Huber,

Szymski,

Krutsch

et al. 2024

European Journal of Sport Science

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Football is the only sport in which the ball can be played with the head. Therefore, compared to other ball team sports, head injuries are quite common. Headers and head injuries are dreaded to cause severe neurological impairments in long‐term, but there is still a lack of data on how often headers are performed in different levels and how often head injuries occur. In a prospective cohort study, all heading situations as well as incidents with a propensity of injury (critical incidents) of 45 elite‐level international matches were analyzed using a standardized video analysis protocol and compared to existing data from German professional leagues. A total of 3670 headers were recorded in 4050 match minutes (0.9 headers/minute). A mean of 81.5 headers per game (SD = 18.4) and 3.7 headers per player and match (SD = 0.8) was found. Compared to a cohort group of the German Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga, a significant reduction of −33.8 headers per game (p < 0.01) and 1.7 per player and match was found. A total of 18 risk of injury situations were recorded giving a rate per match of 0.4 (SD = 0.6). In comparison to the German league data, this also displayed a reduction. The incidence rate was 266 risk of injury situations per 1000 h match exposure, which was far below the rates of German national data (314/1000 h) and correlated with the frequency of headers performed.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Video analysis of heading and risk of head injury situations in elite international men's football: Does the frequency of headers increase with the level of play?

Huber,

Szymski,

Krutsch

et al. 2024

European Journal of Sport Science

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Quality Criteria for Studies Assessing the Acute Effects of Heading: Results from a UEFA Expert Panel

Peek,

Franchi,

Lemmink

et al. 2023

Sports Med

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There is increasing concern regarding the effects of heading in football on brain health including cognitive, behavioural and neuromotor function, with research suggesting an association between repeated ball-head impacts and neurodegenerative disease. While longitudinal studies to determine the long-term consequences of heading are challenging, there have been short-term ‘acute’ studies conducted, with some studies lacking appropriate methodology to ensure valid results. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) established a panel of experts to determine methodological recommendations for the conduct of studies that explore the acute effects of heading (defined as a single session of heading conducted either in a laboratory setting or following match play or a training session). The aim of this panel was to create quality criteria for acute heading studies that will form part of the eligibility assessment when applying for UEFA research funding (although the criteria can be applied to the conduct of acute heading research more widely). This process was deemed necessary to counter studies with poor methodological quality that used heading trials that did not accurately represent player exposure to ball-head impacts through football practice and match play (such as small sample sizes, unrealistically high heading exposure, and a lack of consideration of confounding variables). The panel identified core design decisions that authors should consider when designing and conducting acute heading research, with key methodological requirements for each domain pertaining to participants, heading trials, confounding variables, statistics and dependent/target variables and their measurement. After two rounds of reviews, the final list of quality criteria was agreed by the panel and will be applied to the next round of UEFA grant applications.

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The incidence and characteristics of heading in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup™

Georgieva,

Arnold,

Peek

et al. 2024

Science and Medicine in Football

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Heading and risk of injury situations for the head in professional German football: a video analysis of over 150,000 headers in 110,000 match minutes

Cited by 5 publications

References 32 publications

Video analysis of heading and risk of head injury situations in elite international men's football: Does the frequency of headers increase with the level of play?

Video analysis of heading and risk of head injury situations in elite international men's football: Does the frequency of headers increase with the level of play?

Quality Criteria for Studies Assessing the Acute Effects of Heading: Results from a UEFA Expert Panel

The incidence and characteristics of heading in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup™

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