Blog authors: Chelsea Oxendale, Matthew Green, Keith Stokes, Sean Cumming, Gemma Nicole Parry, Sean Williams In this blog, we provide insights from our latest article published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (available here), where we examined over 16,000 player-seasons from Premier League and Category One Academies to understand how apophyseal (growth-related) injuries vary […]
Tag: Football
Heading in Football Matches
Author: Mike Brownlow Why is this study important? Heading in association football, is an intentional, direct impact between the head and the football and a fundamental skill that can significantly influence match outcomes. Heading in football continues to attract attention, particularly in relation to long term brain health, concussion risk, and youth participation. To support […]
Simpler means safer when responding to an emergency: The new FIFA Medical Set-Piece toolkit and Pre-Match Emergency Action Plan
This blog examines FIFA’s new approach to medical emergencies in football – the “Medical Set Piece.” Just like rehearsed free kicks, FIFA have created a standardised emergency protocol where medical teams practice coordinated responses until they become automatic. Here, we explore the Pre-match Emergency Action Plan (PEAP), which assigns colour-coded roles to team members, ensuring […]
Utilising a pre-participation evaluation to support the Ramadan fasted athlete.
During the 2023/24 season, we piloted the implementation of a pre-participation evaluation (PHE) questionnaire specifically designed for athletes observing Ramadan fasting (1). This proposal sought to address the complex challenges facing our Muslim players during the holy month, including balancing energy levels, maintaining hydration and nutrition within limited eating windows, and managing disrupted sleep schedules(2, […]
Banning heading in youth football – what is the evidence?
Exploring the rationale behind the heading ban in children and adolescent football in the UK In July 2022, the English FA announced a trial for banning the act of heading in matches for the age groups under-12 and below for the 2022-23 season (1). This has since been extended to the 2023-24 season, in an […]
One test does not fit all: Tailoring hamstring Return-to-Play assessment in football
Authors: Paolo Perna and Marco Beato Hamstring injuries continue to be the most common muscle injury in professional football. Despite the practitioners’ efforts, the high re-injury rate remains an issue (1). This makes the Return-to-Play (RTP) decisions even more challenging and increases the pressure on the medical and performance departments to clear players to return […]
Main injury patterns for ACL injuries in female football players
Keywords: soccer; video analysis; mechanism. This blog summarises a recently published paper assessing distinct ACL injuries in professional female footballers (1). Why is this study important? Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are a well-known problem in football and show a multiple times increased incidence in female football (2). This is of particular interest with increasing […]
Does a new injury prevention programme (FUNBALL) prevent injuries in youth male football (soccer) players?
We recently published a cluster-randomised controlled trial (cluster-RCT) in BJSM. It investigated the efficacy of a new injury prevention programme (IPP) called ‘FUNBALL’ in reducing the injuries in youth male football players (1). The summary of this study is outlined in this blog. Why is this study important? The importance of injury prevention in football is well documented. […]
The Wembley Stadium Medical Team
Introduction After opening in 1923, Wembley Stadium celebrated its centenary last year. During 2023, the stadium hosted 30 major events, drawing in a crowd of over 2.2 million people. [1] This number of guests coupled with the playing athletes inevitably brings about a variety of medical presentations, ranging from minor cuts to more severe conditions […]
Football’s burden – hamstring injuries in professional men’s football
Keywords: football, injury, Europe This blog outlines research involving 3,909 professional male football players across 54 Champions League teams in Europe over 21 consecutive seasons. The main aim was to evaluate the time trends of hamstring muscle injuries. Our report from the Elite Club Injury Study (ECIS), recently published in BJSM, was initiated, and funded by […]