UEFA injury study--an injury audit of European Championships 2006 to 2008.

Abstract

To study the incidence and nature of injuries at European Championships, to compare training and match injury characteristics and to study differences in injury incidence between tournaments. Team physicians prospectively recorded individual player exposure and time loss injuries during 12 European Championships (men's EURO n = 1, men's Under-21 n = 2, men's Under-19 n = 3, men's Under-17 n = 3, women's Under-19 n = 3) from 2006 to 2008. International football tournaments. 1594 men and 433 women. Injury incidence. 224 injuries (45 training, 179 match play) were registered among 208 (10%) players. No differences in training injury incidence were seen between tournaments (range 1.3-3.9 injuries/1000 hours). The men's EURO had the highest match injury incidence (41.6 injuries/1000 hours) followed by the men's Under-21 tournaments (33.9). The lowest match injury incidence was seen in the women's Under-19 tournaments (20.5). Training injuries constituted 20% of all injuries and caused 26% of all match unavailability. A greater proportion of match injuries were due to trauma (83 vs 47%, p<0.001) and occurred from player contact (75 vs 48%, p = 0.018) compared to training injuries. A higher frequency of re-injury was found among training injuries than match injuries (20 vs 6%, p = 0.009). Match injury incidence increased with age, indicating greater risk with higher intensity of play. Training injury incidence was relatively low, but training injuries were responsible for a quarter of all match unavailability and may thus have a profound impact on team performance and should be the object of preventive measures.