<p>Injury Analysis in Professional Soccer by Means of Media Reports – Only Severe Injury Types Show High Validity</p>

Abstract

Purpose Injury data of professional soccer players obtained from media reports are frequently used in scientific research, but the accuracy of such data is still unclear. Patients and Methods Injuries of professional soccer players of the German first and second league were documented by continuously screening media reports over one season (2015–2016). After the season, the validity of media-reported injuries was anonymously analyzed by the team physicians of 8 different soccer clubs. Results A total of 255 injuries of 240 players of 8 professional soccer teams had been published online, of which 146 were confirmed by the team doctors as correct, yielding a rate of 57.3% of confirmed media-reported injuries. In addition, 92 injuries without media registration were detected and added to the online statistics, resulting in 347 injuries and an overall weak validity of media-based data of 42.1%. Statistical analysis showed that the validity of media-reported injury data depended on both the individual soccer club and the body site affected by injury: publications on knee injuries (78.2%) had a higher validity than those on foot injuries (46.2%), and publications on severe injuries had a higher validity (joint dislocation: 100%; ligament rupture: 82.9%; fracture: 73.3%) than those on minor injuries. Publications on specific severe soccer injuries, such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, had a validity of 100%. Conclusion Media-based injury data were only valid for a few severe injury types such as ACL injuries. In daily soccer routine and scientific research, media-based data should thus only be used in combination with specific criteria or verification processes.

Injury epidemiology in men’s professional team sports: is media analysis helpful?

“…Severe injuries showed an equal pattern and were well documented in media with rates between 73.3% for fractures and 100% for joint dislocations. Hence, this research found in football similar results in analysis of media [21]. Our study extends these previous findings to the popular team ball sports handball and basketball.…”

“…Due to a lack of validation of this study protocol, this study aimed to identify the validity of injury surveillance based on media reports. Recently, first results of a media report analysis in professional football were published [ 21 ]. However, in other team sports data are missing.…”

“…This unique study design allows first time to make a statement with regard to power and quality of this type of methods. Based on previous results in professional men’s football [ 21 ], the hypothesis of this research was that severe injuries are commonly described in media concerning professional handball and basketball and could be a valid method for injury surveillance.…”

No increased injury incidence in the German Bundesliga after the SARS-CoV-2 virus lockdown

“…Injury data provided by medical staff and players as required for longitudinal studies are rarely available. Therefore, injury data for this study were prospectively documented in a standardised manner according to media analysis [ 14 , 15 , 22 , 23 , 27 ]. This analysis was mainly based upon data obtained from the German kicker ® sports magazine, which is published twice a week and represents one of the main media sources about the first Bundesliga in Germany.…”

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“…Teams do not intend to share sensitive data with the media. However, the underlying methodological standards (media-based injury registries) have previously been used in injury research [3,4,[42][43][44]. The advantage is the massive increase in availability of media-based information [6,7,28,45,46].…”