Weekly External Load Performance Effects on Sports Injuries of Male Professional Football Players

Francisco Martins; Adilson Marques; Cíntia França; Hugo Sarmento; Ricardo Henriques; Andreas Ihle; Marcelo de Maio Nascimento; Carolina Saldanha; Krzysztof Przednowek; Élvio Rúbio Gouveia

doi:10.3390/ijerph20021121

Weekly External Load Performance Effects on Sports Injuries of Male Professional Football Players

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 8;20(2):1121. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021121.

Authors

Francisco Martins^{1

2}, Adilson Marques^{3

4}, Cíntia França^{1

2

5}, Hugo Sarmento⁶, Ricardo Henriques⁷, Andreas Ihle^{8

9

10}, Marcelo de Maio Nascimento¹¹, Carolina Saldanha⁶, Krzysztof Przednowek¹², Élvio Rúbio Gouveia^{1

2

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Madeira, 9020-105 Funchal, Portugal.
² LARSYS, Interactive Technologies Institute, 9020-105 Funchal, Portugal.
³ CIPER, Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, 1495-751 Lisbon, Portugal.
⁴ ISAMB, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, 1649-020 Lisbon, Portugal.
⁵ Research Center in Sports Sciences, Health Sciences, and Human Development (CIDESD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal.
⁶ University of Coimbra, Research Unit for Sport and Physical Activity (CIDAF), Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, 3004-504 Coimbra, Portugal.
⁷ Marítimo da Madeira-Futebol, SAD, 9020-208 Funchal, Portugal.
⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland.
⁹ Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability, University of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES-Overcoming Vulnerability: Life Course Perspectives, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
¹¹ Department of Physical Education, Federal University of Vale do São Francisco, Petrolina 56304-917, Brazil.
¹² Institute of Physical Culture Sciences, Medical College, University of Rzeszów, 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland.

Abstract

One of the most challenging issues professional football players face throughout their careers is injuries. Those injuries often result from suboptimal training programs that were not designed according to the players' individual needs. This prospective study aimed to examine in detail the effects of sports injuries on professional football players' weekly external load performances. Thirty-three male professional football players were monitored using 10-Hz Global Positioning System (GPS) units (Apex pro series, StatSports) during an entire season. The variables considered in the analysis were total distance (TD), high-speed running (HSR), accelerations (ACC), and decelerations (DEC). The comparisons were made between the four-week block before injury (-4T), four-week block after return (+4T), and players' season averages (S). Players displayed significantly higher values of TD, HSR, ACC, and DEC in the -4T, compared to the other two moments (+4T and S). Furthermore, the comparison between the +4T and S showed no significant variations in the GPS metrics. It was shown that a significant increase in players' weekly external load performance over a four-week period may have a negative effect on the occurrence of injuries from a professional football standpoint. Future research should consider the effects of injury severity on players' external load variations.

Keywords: GPS; injury prevention; risk factors of injury; soccer; sports monitoring.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Acceleration
Athletic Injuries* / epidemiology
Humans
Male
Prospective Studies
Soccer* / injuries

Grants and funding

We acknowledge support from the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES—Overcoming vulnerability: life course perspectives, which is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number: 51NF40-185901). Moreover, AI acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number: 10001C_189407). C.F., F.M., and E.G. acknowledge support from LARSyS—Portuguese national funding agency for science, research, and technology (FCT) pluriannual funding 2020–2023 (Reference: UIDB/50009/2020). This study was framed in the Marítimo Training Lab Project. The project received funding under application no. M1420-01-0247-FEDER-000033 in the System of Incentives for the Production of Scientific and Technological Knowledge in the Autonomous Region of Madeira—PROCiência 2020.