Football Injuries during a South African University Sport Tournament

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of injuries in amateur football players during a University Sport South Africa Football tournament and the factors associated with these injuries. A prospective study design to describe football injuries during the University Sport South Africa Football Championships was undertaken. All 32 teams participating during the tournament were invited to participate in the study, but only eleven teams agreed to participate. These included four male and seven female teams. Injuries were recorded daily. Descriptive analysis and a univariate regression were used to analyse the results. A total of 176 players who participated in the study sustained 90 injuries during the tournament. The female players had an incidence of 1.36 injuries per match (95% CI 1.0 – 1.7) which is equivalent to 61.7 injuries/1000 player matches (95% CI 45.7 – 77.7). The incidence of injuries in the male players was 1.38 injuries per match (95% CI 0.9 – 1.8) which is equivalent to 62.5 injuries/1000 player matches (95% CI 41.2 – 83.8). There was an increase in injury rate during warm up (p<0.00) and during contact with another player (p<0.05) due to foul play which resulted in trauma types of injuries for both male and female players. The incidence of injuries in this study for amateur players was similar to other studies football tournaments. Players in this study were more likely to get injuries during warm up and contact with another player.

Keywords: Football/soccer, Tournaments, Injuries