Harmful association of sprinting with muscle injury occurrence in professional soccer match-play: A two-season, league wide exploratory investigation from the Qatar Stars League

• Published in: Journal of science and medicine in sport 2020-02, Vol.23 (2), p.134-138
• Main Authors: Gregson, Warren, Di Salvo, Valter, Varley, Matthew C., Modonutti, Mattia, Belli, Andrea, Chamari, Karim, Weston, Matthew, Lolli, Lorenzo, Eirale, Cristiano
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Confidence intervals; Injuries; Injury risk; Investigations; Load; Load management; Match load; Soccer; Sprinting; Walking
• ISSN: 1440-2440; 1878-1861
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jsams.2019.08.289

To investigate the impact of physical efforts performed in the period preceding activity as a potential risk factor of muscle injury during match-play within a sample of professional soccer players. Observational cohort study. Match load (running [>14.4–19.8km/h], high-speed running [>19.8–25.2km/h], sprinting [>25.2km/h], leading and explosive sprint type) averaged in 1-min and 5-min periods prior to an event or non event for 29 professional outfield soccer players. Conditional logistic and Poisson regression models estimated the relationship between load and injury for a 2 within-subject standard deviation in match load or 1-action increment in the number of sprinting activities, respectively. Associations were deemed beneficial or harmful based on non-overlap of the 95% confidence intervals against thresholds of 0.90 and 1.11, respectively. An increment in sprinting distance [+2-SDs=11m] covered over a 1-min period (odds ratio [OR]: 1.22, 95%CI, 1.12 to 1.33) increased the odds of muscle injury. Our study provides novel exploratory evidence that the volume of sprinting during competitive soccer match-play has a harmful association with muscle injury occurrence.