Football, the beautiful game, has moved away from just being a sport, and is now part of the world’s culture. A huge part of the game has been the players getting injured, as football is a contact sport. I believe the best way to prevent football injuries is for the footballers themselves to understand their bodies, and use proper exercises and warmups before games and training. This Inquiry will look into what a football injury is, and different ways to prevent them including this resolution.
Football injuries happen all the time, both professionally and amateurly, however, most people do not know very much about the specific types of injuries. This graph shows what types of injuries mainly happen in football.
Source: NCAA soccer injuries
https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/NCAA_M_Soccer_Injuries_WEB.pdf
This graph shows the times and ages in which the surveyed football players in England have been injured.
Source: https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000132
There are two types of football injuries. An injury where a player needs medical assistance is called a medical assistance injury. An injury where a player misses out on future games and training is called a time loss injury.
The idea of injury prevention isn’t a particularly new one. For years already, injury prevention has been discussed. FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) have worked hard to make injury prevention something realistic, and have drastically lowered the injury rate already. They have brought yellow and red cards into professional football so that players don’t purposely injure others. They also have made warmups such as the FIFA 11+ warmup. I think that FIFA have done well so far, but they need to apply the same principles towards amateur footballers.
A well known local physiotherapist, Nigel Beach says that to prevent injuries, football players must understand their own body. They can’t expect physiotherapists to do everything, and must do things like warm up and do exercises properly. As I have said before, FIFA has some ideas of warmups like the FIFA11+. This warmup is performed by thousands of football teams from around the world, including my football team. This warm up has been backed up by scientific evidence and has been proven to decrease the chance of injuries by 40%. Just doing a short exercise, stretching every day, and warming up before training and games can help prevent injuries substantially.
Warming up is quick and easy. It does not take much time to complete, and the effort included is minimal. You can work to prevent injuries through exercise and warm up almost anywhere, and you don’t need any equipment. On the other hand, some exercises can actually harm your body rather than help it prevent injury. An example of this is overstretching, which can create instability in the joints. You also do not get the same treatment as when you actually have someone working with you, such as a physiotherapist. This can be very dangerous if you are doing the wrong exercises for your body and you do not know it. A way to fix this is to work with physiotherapists more often, and bring them into the amateur game of football.
Physiotherapists play a huge part in injury prevention and rehabilitation for professional football teams. They do things like monitor players’ resting heart rates, sleep levels, hydration, joint health, muscular health, and more. They also run strength and conditioning programs with teams and work individually with players before games. They help with taping for stability and assisting with readiness for activity. Professional teams have a dedicated, onsite physio who manages individual needs. Amateur players often only get to see the physio when they are injured, not for injury prevention. Nigel Beach, as I have already mentioned, is a physio based in Tauranga, who specialises in sport related injuries and injury prevention. After some of my football injuries, I have visited Nigel, and he has helped enormously. He worked with me about once every month, and gave me exercises to work on between visits.
Physiotherapists solve the issues of harming your body by doing exercises that aren't suited for your body. They also assist professional football teams to prevent the ongoing issues associated with injury. With this in mind, should amateur teams each have an onsite physio? Unfortunately funding is not available for this level of care . Ongoing research is needed to weigh up the cost benefits of injury prevention versus the high level of treatment needed for footballers.. I think for injury prevention, every amateur football club should have a physio that can look after them to prevent injury. This is probably an unrealistic goal because there just are not enough physios or funds to achieve this, but maybe, we can use technology to take the place of the missing physios.
Technology is becoming more accessible. Technology has even been brought into sport to prevent injuries and track players. An example of high technology in football is tracking mouthguards. They can sense when a blow has been dealt to the player, and will light up red when the player needs to take a break. In my football career so far, I have suffered three grade 3 concussions. These mouthguards would help if I had been wearing them. I will look into getting a high tech mouthguard to help in the future. Another high tech method is an injury prevention app that helps you with warmups and training before the game, and some can connect to wearable technology and can track you while you are playing. The app gathers data that can be used to create an individual injury prevention programme.
Injury Prevention technology has helped hundreds of professional football teams so far. It is a great substitute for physiotherapists because this technology can do many things that physios can do, and you do not constantly need to have a person working with you. On the other side, I think that this technology can not beat warming up or having a physio onsite because you have less control, it can be expensive and it is not tailored to the individual. An average wearable football tracker can be up to $400.
We now have three possible resolutions to help with injury prevention in football. All the players, both professional and amateur, can have a fixed warm up and exercise protocol to do at home, before training and games. Physiotherapists could be brought into the amateur game more than before, and this gives a chance for younger players to have the same level of fitness support as professional footballers do. The last possible resolution is for all teams to adopt technology in injury prevention. Using technology such as mouthguards and Playertek trackers can help injury prevention as much as the other resolutions. If we judge these resolutions on cost, convenience, health, immanence, and effectiveness, the best resolution is for all the players, to have a fixed warm up and exercise protocol to do at home and before training and games. Brazilian footballer Mota said: Don’t let an injury be a determining factor in who you are, and who you are known to be. Instead, let it be a learning experience so that you will be better off when you come back.
I think that using warm ups and exercises is the best way to prevent injuries. This is because warming up is so quick and easy. It doesn’t take much time to complete, and the effort included is minimal. You can work to prevent injuries through exercise and warm up almost anywhere, and you don’t need any equipment. Therefore, I think this is the best way to prevent injuries in football. Mike Singletary told the media “You know what my favourite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.”
Works Cited
Bhandari, Smitha. “Concussion: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatments, & Recovery.” WebMD, WebMD, 28 Aug. 2019, www.webmd.com/brain/concussion-traumatic-brain-injury-symptoms-causes-treatments.
Clarke, David. “Common Football Injuries and Their Meanings for a Player.” Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinics | The Physio Company, Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinics | The Physio Company, 5 June 2018, www.thephysiocompany.com/blog/common-football-injuries-and-their-meanings-for-a-player.
Dompier, Thomas P, et al. “Time-Loss and Non-Time-Loss Injuries in Youth Football Players.” Journal of Athletic Training, National Athletic Trainers Association, 2007, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1978461/.
Finnin, Karen. Take Flight or Sit Tight?: the Remote Person's Guide to Dealing with the Top 10 Musculoskeletal Injuries. Physios Online, 2012.
“Footbal Training & Common Injuries: UPMC.” UPMC Sports Medicine, www.upmc.com/services/sports-medicine/for-athletes/football#:~:text=Common Football Injuries&text=Ankle sprains,Hip pointers.
Fuller, C W, et al. “Consensus Statement on Injury Definitions and Data Collection Procedures in Studies of Football (Soccer) Injuries.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, BMJ Group, Mar. 2006, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2491990/.
“Importance of Warming Up before Sport - Sports Injury Prevention.” Importance of Warming Up before Sport - Sports Injury Prevention | Sports Medicine Information, www.nsmi.org.uk/articles/injury-prevention/warming-up.html#:~:text=Effects of the warm-up,physical activity and prevents injuries.
“Injury or Illness: Definition.” Worker's Compensation, 2 Dec. 2015, www.wisconsin.edu/workers-compensation/coordinators/osha-record/injury-def/.
Karantanas, Apostolos H. Sports Injuries in Children and Adolescents. Springer, 2010.
Lindsey Barton Straus, JD. “Ten Ways To Reduce or Prevent Soccer Injuries.” MomsTeam, www.momsteam.com/sports/soccer/ten-ways-to-reduce-or-prevent-soccer-injuries.
“The Physio.” Premier Skills English, 27 Mar. 2017, premierskillsenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/listen/my-match-day/physio.
“Pitch Side Support: A Physios Role in Professional Football.” Capital Physio, 18 Apr. 2019, www.capitalphysio.com/general/footie-fails-and-physio-fixes/#:~:text=Physiotherapists are key members of,is able to continue playing.
Renshaw, Andrew, and Peter C Goodwin. “Injury Incidence in a Premier League Youth Soccer Academy Using the Consensus Statement: a Prospective Cohort Study.” BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, BMJ Specialist Journals, 1 Oct. 2016, bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000132.
Ulisticadmin. “The Latest Sports Technology Available to Prevent Injuries.” Alliance Technology Partners, 18 June 2015, www.alliancetechpartners.com/the-latest-sports-technology-available-to-prevent-sports-injuries/.