Author(s): LEE, J., FETTUS, L., LARRUSKAIN, J., LEKUE, J.A., GIL, S.M., UNDERWOOD, C., MCQUILLIAM, S.J., BAUMERT, P., ERSKINE, R.M., Institution: LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES UNIVERSITY, Country: UNITED KINGDOM, Abstract-ID: 1828

INTRODUCTION:
In professional football (soccer), the main purpose of the pre-season is to restore players’ strength and fitness following the off-season to ensure a successful transition into the in-season in terms of optimising performance and mitigating injury risk. However, the incidence of overuse injuries and re-injury in professional male footballers is in fact higher during pre-season than the in-season (Waldén et al., 2005), which suggests players are overloaded in pre-season. The extent to which injury patterns differ between pre- and in-season in professional female footballers, however, remains unknown, and such knowledge is vital for the design of effective injury prevention strategies. Thus, the objective of this study was to compare injury incidence rates (IIR), burden, and severity of different injury types/locations between pre- and in-season in professional female footballers.
METHODS:
Injury and exposure data were collected from 215 professional female footballers competing in England and Spain between 2015 and 2024. Muscle, ligament/tendon, bone, knee, ankle and thigh IIR and injury burden (days lost) were calculated per 1000 h match and training exposure during pre- and in-season. The proportion of injury severity classifications was also compared between pre- and in-season.
RESULTS:
In total, 390 injuries were recorded, with 78 (20.0%) occurring during pre-season and 312 (80.0%) during in-season. Muscle injury was the most prevalent injury type in both pre- (53.8%) and in-season (37.5%), with the quadriceps femoris muscle being the most common injury location during pre- (52.4%) and in-season (29.9%). Muscle IIR (2.96 [95% CI:2.12-4.12] vs. 1.81 [95% CI:1.44-2.26] injuries/1000h; p=0.016) and thigh IIR (2.15 [95% CI:1.43-3.22] vs. 0.98 [95% CI:0.71-1.33] injuries/1000h; p=0.003) were both higher during pre-season. Injury burden for both muscle (76 [95% CI:31-255] vs. 27 [95% CI:20-38] days/1000h; p=0.009) and thigh (69 [95% CI:25-244] vs. 16 [95% CI:10-26] days/1000h; p=0.001) was also higher during pre-season. There was a higher proportion of moderately severe (8-28 days lost) muscle injuries sustained in pre-season (71.4%) vs. in-season (45.3%) (χ²(1)=5.64, p=0.018).
CONCLUSION:
This is the first study to investigate differences in injury patterns between pre- and in-season in professional female footballers. Specifically, we show that muscle and thigh IIR and burden were higher during pre- than in-season, which appears to be driven primarily by a larger proportion of quadriceps femoris injuries occurring in pre-season. These results suggest that injury prevention strategies in professional female footballers should focus on muscle (particularly the thigh) during pre-season.
References: Waldén M, Hägglund M, Ekstrand J. Injuries in Swedish elite football. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2005;15:118–125.