Incidence, burden, and pattern of injuries in Spanish male youth soccer players: A prospective cohort study

Objectives: To explore the incidence, burden, and pattern of injuries in Spanish male youth soccer players during a 9-month competitive season (from September to May-June). Design: Prospective cohort study. Participants: 314 young (10-19 years) soccer players. Main outcome measures: Incidence, burden, location, type, severity, mechanism, and circumstance of injuries, as well as potential differences by tactical position, month of the year, age group, and maturity status. Results: A total of 146 time-loss injuries were sustained by 101 different players. This resulted in an overall injury incidence of 3.1 injuries per 1000 h, a training injury incidence of 1.8 injuries per 1000 h, and a match injury incidence of 11.2 injuries per 1000 h. The probability of injury over the season was 34%. Most of the injuries affected the lower extremity and were classified as muscle/tendon injuries, with hamstring muscle injuries representing the most burdensome diagnosis. The incidence of injuries increased with age and maturation, but a heightened risk of overuse injuries during periods around peak height velocity was also identified. .Conclusions: These findings suggest a need for implementing specific injury prevention measures. Due to the high burden shown, these measures should mainly focus on reducing the number and severity of hamstring muscle injuries. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).