Hematological profile of players from a elite team football of the Portigiese 1st league

Despite the importance of hematological indicators in football, their comprehension and use is one of the most common limitations in the sport. Thereby, the purpose of this study was to characterize hematologically the players of an elite football team of the Portuguese 1st league over the period of 1 year. Twenty elite players from a professional football team of the 1st Portuguese League, with a mean age of 26 years (SD = 5.0) were studied. The data collected are the result of clinical evaluations and analyzes carried out in three phases. Wilcoxon tests for repeated measures and Friedman tests were performed. In the case of post-hoc analyzes of the significant variables of the Friedman test, the Bonferroni adjustment was applied. The hematocrit medians at stage 1, 2 and 3 were respectively 44%, 46.9% and 43.15%, with differences observed between phase 1 and 3 (Z = -3.101, p = 0.002) and 2 and 3 (Z = 3,547, p <.001). For the erythrocytes, the medians were 5.15x1012 / L, 5.05x1012 / L and 5.35x1012 / L, with differences between phase 2 and 3 (Z = -3,595, p <.001). In VGM, the medians were 84.00FL, 85.50FL and 87.00FL. There were differences between phase 1 and 3 (Z = -3.312, p = 0.001). Finally, the HGM presented median values of 29.00pg, 29.50pg and 29.00pg, with differences between phases 1 and 3 (Z = -2,652, p = 0.008) and phase 2 and 3 (Z = -3,466, p = 0.001). This study presents as main indicators the stabilization of hematological values from the beginning to the middle of the sporting season, and a slight improvement compared to the final measurement.