@article{ref1,
title="Incidence of injury in Gaelic football: a 4-year prospective study",
journal="American journal of sports medicine",
year="2012",
author="Murphy, John C. and O'Malley, Edwenia and Gissane, Conor and Blake, Catherine",
volume="40",
number="9",
pages="2113-2120",
abstract="BACKGROUND:Gaelic football is a national sport of Ireland. While predominantly played in Ireland, it is recognized in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australasia. Its high-velocity, multidirectional, and high physical contact elements expose players to a risk of injury. To date, prospective injury data for Gaelic football has been of short duration. PURPOSE:To describe the incidence and nature of sport-related injuries in elite male Gaelic football players over 4 consecutive seasons. STUDY DESIGN:Descriptive epidemiology study. METHODS:Over the period 2007 to 2010, a total of 851 Gaelic football players were tracked. Players were members of county-level teams who volunteered to be included in the study. Team injury, training, and match play data were submitted by the team physiotherapist on a weekly basis through a dedicated web portal to the National Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) injury database. Injury was defined using a time loss criterion, in accordance with consensus statements in sports applicable to Gaelic games. RESULTS:A total of 1014 Gaelic football injuries were recorded. Incidence of injury was 4.05 per 1000 hours of football training. Match-play injury rates were 61.86 per 1000 hours. Muscle was the most frequently injured tissue (42.6%) and fractures accounted for 4.4% of Gaelic football injuries. Lower extremity injuries predominated (76.0%). Hamstring injuries were the single most common injury overall, representing almost one quarter (24%) of all injuries and over half of muscle injuries. Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries accounted for 13% of knee injuries. The majority of injuries were defined as new injuries (74.7%), with recurrent injuries constituting 23% of all injuries. The majority (59%) of match play injuries occurred in the second half of the match. Eighty six percent of injuries caused over one week's absence from play. CONCLUSION:These findings illustrate injury patterns in Gaelic football using a prospective methodology, over 4 consecutive seasons. Comparison with published literature suggests that Gaelic football match play injury risk is greater than soccer but less than rugby union.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0363-5465",
doi="10.1177/0363546512455315",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0363546512455315"
}