Workload and non‐contact injury incidence in elite football players competing in European leagues

Delecroix, Barthélémy; McCall, Alan; Dawson, Brian; Berthoin, Serge; Dupont, Grégory

doi:10.1080/17461391.2018.1477994

Cited by 51 publications

(69 citation statements)

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“…Load monitoring is critical to inform medical and performance staff strategies . Previous investigations into associations of load with non‐contact injury occurrence in football examined the prognostic value of composite measures of external and internal load as potential risk factors yielding unclear and inconsistent findings . However, these studies were not without methodological shortcomings, most notably the use of ratio indices, multiple load time bins analyzed as categorical variables, and a composite score .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these studies were not without methodological shortcomings, most notably the use of ratio indices, multiple load time bins analyzed as categorical variables, and a composite score . Additionally, the failure of researchers to distinguish the specific nature of an event within the spectrum of acute or overuse injuries represents and additional limitation substantiating the limited practical utility of load‐injury studies in the available literature . The lack of a clear differentiation between injury types as outcome measures implies that the load‐injury relationship is assumed to be same within the spectrum of acute or overuse injuries, which appears implausible on clinical grounds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, studies have calculated acute and chronic external and internal loads represented by prior 7‐, 14‐, 21‐, and 28‐day loads, week‐to‐week changes, and the acute: chronic workload ratio (ACWR), with inconsistent findings . Despite inherent limitations of this ratio for applied and medical purposes, recent studies in football have examined associations between typically high ACWR values and increased non‐contact injury risk . Furthermore, transforming continuous measures of load into categorical variables (eg, high, moderate, and low) involves a loss of statistical power, increased Type I error rates, and an underestimation of the variation in the outcome of interest .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, transforming continuous measures of load into categorical variables (eg, high, moderate, and low) involves a loss of statistical power, increased Type I error rates, and an underestimation of the variation in the outcome of interest . Third, previous research has compared the load pattern of injured players to that of their uninjured teammates . It seems more appropriate to compare injured players to themselves, that is, whether the load pattern preceding injury differs from their usual load.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It seems more appropriate to compare injured players to themselves, that is, whether the load pattern preceding injury differs from their usual load. Finally, previous investigations used a composite measure of internal load that combines training and competition duration with perceived exertion (session‐RPE, s‐RPE) . While this approach is useful for quantifying weekly and training phase load, a specific breakdown is unclear as the score neglects quantification of intensity and duration in isolation, both of which are important for effective training planning …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No association between perceived exertion and session duration with hamstring injury occurrence in professional football

Lolli

Bahr

Weston

et al. 2019

Scandinavian Med Sci Sports

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Training and competition loads have emerged as modifiable composite risk factors of non‐contact injury. Hamstring strains are the most common injuries in football with substantial burden on the individual player and club. Nevertheless, robust evidence of a consistent load‐hamstring injury relationship in professional football is lacking. Using available data from the Qatar Stars League over three competitive seasons, this study investigated the separate and combined effects of perceived exertion and session duration on hamstring injury occurrence in a sample of 30 outfield football players. Load variables were calculated into 7‐day, 14‐day, 21‐day, 28‐day periods of data, and week‐to‐week changes for average ratings of perceived exertion (RPE; au) score and session‐RPE (s‐RPE; session‐duration × score), plus the cumulative training and match minutes and s‐RPE, respectively. Conditional logistic regression models estimated load‐injury relationships per 2‐within‐subject standard deviation increments in each candidate variable. Associations were declared practically important based on the location of the confidence interval in relation to thresholds of 0.90 and 1.11 defining small beneficial and harmful effects, respectively. The uncertainty for the corrected odds ratios show that typically high within‐subject increments in each candidate variable were not practically important for training‐ and match‐related hamstring injury (95% confidence intervals range: 0.85 to 1.16). We found limited exploratory evidence regarding the value of perceived exertion and session duration as etiological factors of hamstring injury in Middle‐East professional football. Monitoring remains valuable to inform player load management strategies, but our exploratory findings suggest its role for type‐specific injury risk determination appears empirically unsupported.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

No association between perceived exertion and session duration with hamstring injury occurrence in professional football

Lolli

Bahr

Weston

et al. 2019

Scandinavian Med Sci Sports

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Team's average acute:chronic workload ratio correlates with injury risk in NCAA men's soccer team

Bakal

Friedrich

Keane

et al. 2023

PM&R

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BackgroundResearch in multiple sports has shown that an individual's acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR) correlates with injury. However, tailoring team trainings to each individual's ACWR is technically challenging and has not been found to decrease injury risk.ObjectiveTo establish a more feasible method of utilizing the ACWR for injury prevention in soccer. In a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's soccer team, we assessed whether the team's average ACWR, as opposed to that of each individual, correlated with injuries sustained throughout the season.DesignInjury and workload data were retrospectively evaluated for all players (n = 23) of an NCAA men's soccer team during one 18‐week season. Workload data for five global positioning system (GPS)‐derived workload variables (total distance, high‐speed distance, accelerations, player load, and average velocity) were used to calculate the team's average daily acute and chronic workloads (accumulated load for each variable during the past 3 and 28 days, respectively), and uncoupled ACWRs (acute workload divided by chronic workload for each variable). A retrospective cohort design was used to compare the team's workloads and ACWRs on days where ≥1 injury occurred versus days where zero injuries occurred using binary logistic regression models.ResultsTrainings/games with injuries had higher acute workloads, lower chronic workloads, and higher ACWRs for all five workload variables. In multivariable analysis, risk factors for injury included a low chronic workload for total distance (odds ratio [OR] 7.23, p = .024) and an ACWR >1.4 for accelerations (OR 4.34, p = .029).ConclusionsThe team's injury risk was greater with low distance accumulation during the chronic period and with an elevated ACWR for accelerations. Future intervention‐based studies aimed at using ACWR load‐management principles as a method of decreasing injury risk in soccer can consider tracking the team's average values with the goal of maintaining a consistent chronic workload for total distance and avoiding elevations in the ACWR for accelerations.

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Assessing acute:chronic workload ratio methodologies for the prediction of knee pain in men's elite volleyball

Damji

MacDonald

Hunt

et al. 2021

Translational Sports Med

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Predicting sports injuries is a complex phenomenon given the multitude of risk factors involved and the need for an inciting event. Recent evidence suggests that the acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR) is a potentially useful tool for quantifying athlete workloads, with athletes at increased risk of injury when the ACWR is higher relative to a lower ACWR. While several team sports have been studied in the ACWR literature, there is a paucity of studies that focus on volleyball athletes, and no studies that use knee pain as an outcome. Furthermore, controversy exists as inconsistent results among studies may be attributed to differences in calculating the ACWR. Our objective was to assess different definitions of the ACWR for predicting knee pain in elite volleyball athletes. We expected to see agreement with the literature in that ACWR would be positively associated with knee pain. We conducted a retrospective, exploratory analysis on a data set from a University varsity volleyball team. Our mixed effect modeling indicated that the coefficient estimates for the ACWR variants were small and statistically insignificant. The variant used did not have a major influence on the relationship with knee pain score, and the strength of the relationship was weak.

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Workload and non‐contact injury incidence in elite football players competing in European leagues

Cited by 51 publications

References 50 publications

No association between perceived exertion and session duration with hamstring injury occurrence in professional football

No association between perceived exertion and session duration with hamstring injury occurrence in professional football

Team's average acute:chronic workload ratio correlates with injury risk in NCAA men's soccer team

Assessing acute:chronic workload ratio methodologies for the prediction of knee pain in men's elite volleyball

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