Salivary Immunoendocrine and Self-report Monitoring Profiles across an Elite-Level Professional Football Season

Abstract

This investigation examined the longitudinal changes and inter-relationships of salivary and self-report monitoring measures across a professional football season. MethodsMeasures were collected bi-weekly from 18 senior professional male players across a six-week pre-season and eight five-week in-season mesocycles and analysed using a linear mixed-effects model. ResultsAnalysis identified a small (P=0.003) cross-season suppression of salivary immunoglobulin-A, small reductions to salivary 𝛼-amylase (P=0.047) and salivary cortisol (P=0.007), and trivial changes to salivary testosterone (P>0.05). The testosterone:cortisol ratio typically responded inversely to changes in player workload. Self-report measures of fatigue (P=0.030), sleep quality (P=0.003) and muscle soreness (P=0.005) improved (ES=small) across the first half of the season. Fatigue and sleep measures were most consistently related to hormonal measures (R 2 = 0.43 to 0.45). For these relationships, increases in cortisol were associated with compromised self-report responses, whereas increases in testosterone:cortisol were associated with improved responses. Non-linear relationships were identified for fatigue with immunoglobulin-A (P=0.017; ES=trivial) and testosterone (P=0.012; ES=trivial); for sleep quality with testosterone (P<0.001; ES=trivial); for muscle soreness with testosterone (P=0.012; ES=trivial) and for the self-report inventory sum with testosterone (P=0.027; ES=trivial). For these relationships, self-report responses were optimal at mean immunoglobulin-A and testosterone levels and very low levels (-2 SD) exerted the most compromising effects. ConclusionPlayers can experience a chronic cross-season suppression of mucosal immunity. Salivary immunoglobulin-A, testosterone, cortisol and testosterone:cortisol measures relate to selfreport measures of fatigue, sleep quality and muscle soreness. In-season reductions in testosterone, cortisol and testosterone:cortisol or increases in cortisol among elite football players could be used to indicate the need for reduced workload, which might lead to improved wellbeing.

The Immunological and Hormonal Responses to Competitive Match-Play in Elite Soccer Players

“…The present findings may provide practitioners with detailed knowledge about acute and chronic variations in physical match performance and the subsequent recovery responses, that can be practically useful to assess and interpret change in individual and team performance. Previously, a number of practical recommendations to monitor immune function in athletes have been documented [ 7 , 9 , 10 , 16 , 51 ]. Match-play with higher physical outputs did not necessarily produce disturbances to mucosal immunity and hormonal balance.…”

“…From the aforementioned methods, saliva sampling methods have been employed to quickly screen players for stress and illness on a regular basis throughout the season [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Saliva sampling is a relatively simple and non-invasive method that provides practitioners with a variety of markers that can be used to understand players physiological status pre- and post-match.…”

“…Mortatti et al [ 8 ] reported a decrease in s-IgA concentration, a marker of mucosal immunity, in elite U19 soccer players when regularly monitored in a series of seven matches over 20 days, which may leave players more susceptible to illness, specifically through upper respiratory tract infections. Indeed, Springham et al [ 10 ] also identified a cross-season suppression of s-IgA in professional soccer players, which was related to players perceived fatigue, sleep quality and muscle soreness suggesting the need to adopt s-IgA monitoring to aid in the prescription of training load and recovery. Therefore, methods that may be able to provide practitioners with an objective understanding of immune system function, in particular for mucosal immunity, in the period following match-play may be able to minimize the number of training days lost to illness over the course of a season [ 13 ].…”

The Physiological and Perceptual Responses to Concurrent Training in Soccer Players

“…Given the opposing roles of T and C and their respective functions in regulating anabolic and catabolic activity, periods of excessive training load, competition, and psychological stress may reduce T but concomitantly increase C concentrations, resulting in a reduction in the T:C ratio Ispirlidis et al, 2008;Rowell et al, 2017). Indeed, recent work in soccer has observed that the T:C ratio tends to respond inversely to training load and is associated with self-report measures of well-being across a season (Springham et al, 2021). Therefore, the lack of any between-trial significant differences in hormonal concentrations at +24h in the current study suggests that the order of SSG and resistance training may not impact the acute regulation of anabolism (i.e., tissue growth, substrate restoration, and recovery) or catabolism (i.e., tissue breakdown and metabolic regulation), which is perhaps unsurprising given that the combined training load was the same on both trials (Kraemer, Ratamess, & Nindl, 2017).…”

“…Given the opposing roles of T and C and their respective functions in regulating anabolism (i.e., tissue growth, substrate restoration, and recovery) and catabolism (i.e., tissue breakdown and metabolic regulation), periods of excessive training load, competition, and psychological stress have been shown to reduce T but concomitantly increase C, resulting in a reduction in the T:C ratio Ispirlidis et al, 2008;Rowell et al, 2017). Indeed, the T:C ratio is commonly considered an indicator of athlete readiness (Urhausen, Gabriel, & Kindermann, 1995;Papacosta & Nassis, 2011;Sinnott-O'Connor et al, 2018), and relationships between the T:C ratio and perceptual measures of fatigue and overtraining have previously been reported (Adlercreutz et al, 1986;Maso et al, 2004;Springham et al, 2021). Therefore, the finding that the T:C ratio was lower at 24 hours Schumann et al, 2013;Taipale et al, 2014;Eklund et al, 2016;Jones et al, 2017).…”