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Injury burden differs considerably between single teams from German professional male football (soccer): surveillance of three consecutive seasons

  • SPORTS MEDICINE
  • Published:
Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to analyse unique injury data of the national statutory accident insurance for the two highest divisions in German male football (Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga) over three consecutive seasons regarding inter-season, inter-division and inter-team differences.

Methods

This was a prospective observational open cohort study over the seasons 2014/2015, 2015/2016 and 2016/2017. Every acute injury that was registered by clubs or physicians with the German statutory accident insurance for professional athletes (VBG) as part of occupational accident reporting and that led to time loss and/or to medical attention, was included.

Results

The complete sample consisted of 1449 players. The study covered 2663.5 player seasons with an observed match exposure of 69,058 h and a projected training exposure of 529,136 h. In total, 7493 injuries were included. The overall incidence rate was 12.5 (± 0.28) injuries per 1000 exposure hours, which translated into match and training rates of 47.0 (± 1.62) and 8.02 (± 0.24) injuries per 1000 h, respectively.

Conclusion

Findings of 2.7 injuries per player and season underline the need of effective preventive approaches. Higher injury incidences in seasons after international tournaments suggest an increasing risk of injury with increasing number of matches. However, large differences between the single teams from the same division indicate that a reduction in the injury burden is generally possible. Continuing the presented injury surveillance might be helpful to identify injury trends in the future and to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive approaches under real-life conditions.

Level of evidence

Level  II.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all the participating clubs including coaches, players and medical staff. Data analyst Katja Burkhardt is acknowledged for aggregating and pseudonymising the injury data from the VBG data warehouse.

Funding

This study received no funding to compete.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Fakultät für Sportwissenschaft, Lehr- und Forschungsbereich Sportmedizin und Sporternährung, Gesundheitscampus-Nord 10, 44801, Bochum, Germany

    Christian Klein, Thomas Henke & Petra Platen

  2. Verwaltungs-Berufsgenossenschaft (VBG), Bezirksverwaltung Bergisch Gladbach, Kölner Str. 20, 51429, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany

    Christian Klein

  3. Deutscher Handball Bund, Strobelallee 56, 44139, Dortmund, Germany

    Patrick Luig

Authors
  1. Christian Klein
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  2. Patrick Luig
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  3. Thomas Henke
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  4. Petra Platen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian Klein.

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Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The ethical committee of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany, Faculty of Sports Science, declared no ethical objections to this study design.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Klein, C., Luig, P., Henke, T. et al. Injury burden differs considerably between single teams from German professional male football (soccer): surveillance of three consecutive seasons. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 28, 1656–1664 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-019-05623-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-019-05623-y

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