TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2018//
TI  - Muscle injury rate in professional football is higher in matches played within 5 days since the previous match: a 14-year prospective study with more than 130 000 match observations
JO  - British journal of sports medicine
A1  - Bengtsson, Håkan
A1  - Ekstrand, Jan
A1  - Waldén, Markus
A1  - Hägglund, Martin
SP  - 1116
EP  - 1122
VL  - 52
IS  - 17
N2  - BACKGROUND: The association between match congestion and injury rates in professional football [soccer] has yielded conflicting results. <br><br>AIM: To analyse associations between match congestion on an individual player level and injury rates during professional football matches. <br><br>METHODS: Data from a prospective cohort study of professional football with 133 170 match observations were analysed with Poisson regressions. Associations between short-term match congestion, defined as number of days between two match exposures (≤3, 4, 5, 6 and 7-10 days) and injury rates were analysed. To analyse the influence of long-term match congestion, defined as individual match exposure hours in the 30 days preceding a match, observations were categorised into three groups (low, ≤4.5; medium, >4.5 to ≤7.5; and high, >7.5 hours). <br><br>RESULTS: No differences in total match injury rates were found between the reference category (≤3 days) and the other categories of short-term congestion. Muscle injury rates were significantly lower in matches preceded by 6 (rate ratio (RR) 0.79; 95% CI 0.65 to 0.95) or 7-10 days (RR 0.81; 95% CI 0.71 to 0.93) compared with ≤3 days since the last match exposure. No differences in total and muscle injury rates between the three long-term match congestion groups were found. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: In this study of male professional football players, there were no match congestion-related differences in total match injury rates, but muscle injury rates during matches were lower when players were given at least 6 days between their match exposures.<br><br>© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0306-3674
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-097399
ID  - ref1
ER  -