The acute:chonic workload ratio in relation to injury risk in professional soccer

Abstract

These findings demonstrate that an acute:chronic workload of between 1.00 and 1.25 is protective for professional soccer players. A higher intermittent-aerobic capacity appears to offer greater injury protection when players are exposed to rapid changes in workload in elite soccer players. Moderate workloads, coupled with moderate-low to moderate-high acute:chronic workload ratios, appear to be protective for professional soccer players.

Match-related risk factors for injury in male professional football

“…This could indicate that a sudden increase in match load is harmful for players, similar to what has been shown for total load previously [97].…”

“…In professional football, a high (≥1.5) acute to chronic workload ratio has been shown to increase the odds of injury three-fold. This study also showed that large variations in workload from one week to the other were associated with an increased odds of injury, especially for players with a low level of fitness in comparison with their team mates [97]. …”

“…According to a recent consensus statement about load in sport, it is argued that competition/matches could be considered a sudden increase in load compared with regular training [52]. If players have recently been absent due to an injury and then make a quick return to their first match, it is plausible that they have not been able to build a sufficient level of chronic load, which could leave them less tolerant of a sudden increase in load in their first match [53,97].…”

Internal workload and non-contact injury: a one-season study of five teams from the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study

“…While this workload measure is well established in other football codes10 it is less clear in football (soccer). Malone et al 11 found an acute:chronic workload of >1.00 AU and <1.25 AU to be protective using the traditional 1:4 weeks, however CIs crossed 1 and therefore the results are not clear. Lu et al 12 found no excessively inflated acute:chronic workloads prior to injury.…”

“…Using the session-rating of perceived exertion (s-RPE: duration* perceived intensity) method of quantifying internal workload,10 Malone et al 11 found that professional players exerting acute 1-weekly workloads ≥1500 arbitrary units (AU) to ≤2120 AU)were at higher risk of injury than those <1500 AU (OR 1.95, 95% CI 0.98 to 3.95). Additionally, 2-weekly and 3-weekly cumulated workloads ≥5980 AU and ≥9154 AU also showed significantly higher injury risk during preseason (OR 4.74, 95% CI 2.74 to 5.66 and OR 5.11, 95% CI 4.26 to 5.14, respectively).…”