Soccer injuries among elite female players

Abstract

Injuries occurring in two female elite soccer teams were recorded during 1 year. Of 41 players, 33 (80%) sustained 78 injuries. The incidence of injury during games was 24/1000 hours, while the incidence during training was 7/1000 hours. The majority (88%) of injuries were localized to the lower extremities, with equal occurrence in the left and right legs. Forty-nine percent of the injuries occurred in the knee or ankle. Most of the injuries were minor (49%), while 36% were moderate and 15% were major. Of the major injuries (N = 12), 10 were due to trauma and 7 (58%) were knee ligament or meniscal tears. Overuse injuries constituted 28% of all injuries and occurred mainly during preseason training and at the beginning and end of the competitive season. Traumatic injuries (72%) occurred mainly during games with a predominance at the beginning of the competitive season. Almost 80% of the traumatic injuries occurred during physical contact with an opponent. Extrinsic factors such as weather, playing surface, temperature, or the position of the player within the team did not influence the injury rate. We conclude that female elite soccer players sustain a high incidence of injury. Few injuries were major, but 17% of the players sustained a major knee injury during the year.

Prevalência de lesões em atletas do futsal feminino brasileiro: um estudo retrospectivo

“…The European women's soccer, investigated during a season, presented lower incidence of injuries corresponding to 41% of the sample 20 . The lower limbs were the mostly injured, totalizing 86.5% of all injuries, corroborating the findings in the literature concerning the high prevalence of injuries in these segments, in soccer and futsal 6,15,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23] . The disproportion between the body segments may be attributed to the higher demand of the lower extremity in the sport 4 .…”

“…Regarding the mostly injured sites, there was predominance of ankle injuries, which also corroborated other studies already conduced in the women's soccer and men's futsal [4][5][6]11,14,[18][19][20]23 . The high incidence of knee injuries is not something new, since the high prevalence of injuries on that site was also found in the literature in general 6,11,14,15,17,19,20 . The high number of muscle injuries on the thigh was surprising though and its frequency was similar to the number of injuries on the ankle and knee.…”

“…4 with a men's futsal team and by Jacobson and Tegner 17 in the Swedish women's soccer league. In other investigations, the number of injuries reached a higher percentage 15,18,19 . The European women's soccer, investigated during a season, presented lower incidence of injuries corresponding to 41% of the sample 20 .…”

Applied Physiology of Female Soccer: An Update

“…Injuries to the hip and groin are less common in female players [98,103,106,109,110] than males [111,112] and this is attributed to the abdominal wall deficiency apparent in males [113]. Knee injuries are more frequent in females than males [114], with the knee [98,107] and ankle [110] often being cited as the most common injury sites in females.…”

“…Longitudinal injury patterns in female soccer are of interest to assess if soft tissue injuries are becoming more frequent as the intensity of the female game increases or if the increased Soccer injuries predominately affect the ankle, knee and muscles of the thigh and calf [101]. Injuries to the hip and groin are less common in female players [98,103,106,109,110] [75,98,99,115,116]. The large body of evidence is in part due to the financial and emotional cost of an ACL as well as the potential impact upon the team [117].…”