The Football Association Injury and Illness Surveillance Study: the incidence, burden and severity of injuries and illness in men’s and women’s international football

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Sprouse, B. ORCID: 0000-0002-3655-2478, Alty, J., Kemp, S., Cowie, C., Mehta, R., Tang, A., Morris, J. ORCID: 0000-0001-6508-7897, Cooper, S. ORCID: 0000-0001-5219-5020 and Varley, I. ORCID: 0000-0002-3607-8921, 2020. The Football Association Injury and Illness Surveillance Study: the incidence, burden and severity of injuries and illness in men’s and women’s international football. Sports Medicine. ISSN 0112-1642

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-020-01411-8

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the incidence and characteristics of injury and illness in English men’s and women’s senior and youth international football.

Methods: Time-loss injuries and illnesses, alongside match and training exposure, were collected across 8 seasons (2012-2020) in youth (U15,U16,U17,U18,U19) and senior (U20,U21,U23,senior) English men’s and women’s international teams. Analysis of incidence, burden and severity of injury and illness was completed. Sex-specific comparisons were made between the senior and youth groups, and across the 8 seasons of data collection.

Results: In men’s international football, 535 injuries were recorded (216 senior; 319 youth) during 73326 h of exposure. Overall, match injury incidence (31.1 ± 10.8 injuries/1000h) and burden (454.0 ± 195.9 d absent/1000h) were greater than training injury incidence (4.0 ± 1.0 injuries/1000h) and burden (51.0 ± 21.8 d absent/1000h) (both P < 0.001). In women’s international football, 503 injuries were recorded (senior: 177; youth: 326) during 80766 h of exposure and match injury incidence (27.6 ± 11.3 injuries/1000h) and burden (506.7 ± 350.2 days absent/1000h) were greater than training injury incidence (5.1 ± 1.8 injuries/1000h) and burden (87.6 ± 32.8 days absent/1000h) (both P < 0.001). In women’s international football, a group x season interaction was observed for training injury incidence (P = 0.021), with the senior group recording a greater training injury incidence during the 2015-16 season compared to the youth group (14.4 vs 5.7 injuries/1000h; P = 0.022). There was no difference in injury severity between match and training for men’s (P = 0.965) and women’s (P = 0.064) international football.

Conclusions: The findings provide a comprehensive examination of injury and illness in English men’s and women’s senior and youth international football. Practitioners will be able to benchmark their team’s injury and illness incidence and characteristics to the match-play and training information provided in the present study.

Item Type:

Journal article

Alternative Title:

Injuries and illness in men's and women’s international football [short title]

Publication Title:

Sports Medicine

Creators:

Sprouse, B., Alty, J., Kemp, S., Cowie, C., Mehta, R., Tang, A., Morris, J., Cooper, S. and Varley, I.

Publisher:

Springer Verlag

Date:

28 December 2020