Injury risk reduction strategies

Preventing injury in elite soccer is a quest, and a currency, that all stakeholders in elite soccer should understand and aspire to. For players, injury may stunt development and limit potential, affecting career success and contract status. For managers and coaches, injuries reduce the number of players available for selection, negatively impacting the consistency of team selection and the opportunity for tactical work in training. As player salaries continue to increase, administrators might understand the significant financial burden of injury, estimated to average $12.4 million USD per team each season in the world’s best professional leagues. Accordingly, coaches and performance/medical staff may be benchmarked on injuries in the squad, particularly when considering the link between lower injury rates and success. However, despite the ‘shared goal’ of injury prevention, and the extensive investments in research, systems, technologies and expertise, injury incidence does not appear to be reducing in elite soccer. Whilst this trend may be due to the increased pace of the modern game coupled with the increased exposure due to fixture congestion and television schedules, it is most important to highlight the multi-factorial aetiology of injury, with vast interaction of individual risk factors.