Citation

Ekstrand J, Waldén M, Hägglund M. Scand. J. Med. Sci. Sports 2004; 14(1): 34-38.

Affiliation

Department of Social Medicine and Public Health Science, Linköping University, and the Sports Clinic, Linköping, Sweden. jan.ekstrand@telia.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

14723786

Abstract

The Swedish male senior national football (soccer) team was followed prospectively between 1991 and 1997. During these 6 years, the team played 73 official matches and had three training camps. The senior author (J. E.) attended 57 of these matches and the three training camps and these matches and training camps, are included in the present study. Exposure to football was recorded individually for each player. The team physician examined all injuries. Total exposure was 7245 h (6235 training and 1010 match hours) and there were 71 injuries (40 training and 31 match injuries). Five (16%) of the match injuries were major, with more than 4 weeks of absence from football. The injury incidence during training was 6.5/1000 h and the injury risk during matchplay was 30.3/1000 h. A significantly higher injury incidence was found for matches lost compared to matches won or drawn (52.5 vs. 22.7/1000 h, P=0.026). No statistically significant difference for injury was found between competitive matches and friendly matches. No difference was found between home and away matches or matches on neutral ground. The risk for injury when playing in a national team compares with previously reported figures for professional football at a high level.

Language: en