Tim Meyer

Universität des Saarlandes | UKS

Acute illnesses affecting the respiratory tract are common and form a significant component of the work of Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) clinicians. Acute respiratory illness (ARill) can broadly be classified as non-infective ARill and acute respiratory infections (ARinf). The aim of this consensus is to provide the SEM clinician with an overvi...

Introduction The coronavirus lockdown in 2020 resulted in a worldwide suspension of professional sports. The first major professional football league to restart after the lockdown was the German Bundesliga. This study investigates whether the injury incidence increased after the restart of the season with only 9 days of regular preparation time and...

PurposeThe aim of this study was to assess the short-term responsiveness of measurement instruments aiming at quantifying the acute psycho-physiological response to load in high-level adolescent soccer players.Methods Data were collected from 16 high-level male youth soccer players from the Under 15 age group. Players were assessed on two occasions...

Identifying players or circumstances associated with an increased risk of injury is fundamental for successful risk management in football. So far, time-constant and volatile risk factors are generally considered separately in either a screening (constant) or a monitoring (volatile) approach each resulting in a restricted set of explanatory variabl...

This study describes an approach to evaluate the off-ball behaviour of attacking players in association football. The aim was to implement a defensive pressure model to examine an offensive player's ability to create separation from a defender using 1411 high-intensity off-ball actions including 988 Deep Runs (DRs) DRs and 423 Change of Directions...

Acute respiratory illness (ARill) is common and threatens the health of athletes. ARill in athletes forms a significant component of the work of Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) clinicians. The aim of this consensus is to provide the SEM clinician with an overview and practical clinical approach to non-infective ARill in athletes. The Internationa...

Zusammenfassung Trotz der Dominanz orthopädisch-unfallchirurgischer Krankheitsbilder im Fußball sind auch internistische Erkrankungen bei Fußballspieler/-innen von hoher sportmedizinischer Relevanz. Die vorliegende Übersichtsarbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Prävention wichtiger Pathologien der inneren Organe im Fußball.

Introduction Many professional football players sustain at least one severe injury over the course of their career. Because detailed epidemiological data on different severe injuries in professional football have been missing so far, this study describes the frequency and return-to-competition (RTC) periods of different types of severe football inj...

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, compulsory masks became an integral part of outdoor sports such as jogging in crowded areas (e.g. city parks) as well as indoor sports in gyms and sports centers. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the effects of medical face masks on performance and cardiorespiratory parameters in athletes. Method...

Background Higher neck strength has been postulated to reduce head impact magnitude during purposeful heading in football.Objectives This pilot trial explored the effect of a neck exercise programme on (1) neck strength and (2) head impact magnitude during heading in male and female adolescent football players.Methods Boys and girls (aged 12–17 yea...

While sample sizes in elite sports are necessarily small, so are the effects that may be relevant. This conundrum is complicated by an understandable reluctance of athletes to comply with extensive study requirements. In Bayesian analyses, pre-existing knowledge (e.g., from sub-elite trials) can be formally included to supplement scarce data. Moreo...

We aimed to analyze the number and type of contacts involving the risk of respiratory disease transmission during football match play. We analysed 50 matches from different playing levels. Two reviewers evaluated the contacts of all players in each match. We focused on between-player contacts, crowding, actions with potentially increased aerosol an...

Purpose: To analyse the association of seasonal best time, distance and different performance levels with end-spurt behaviour in one swimming season. Methods: Race results in 800 m and 1500 m pool freestyle swimming in the season 2018/2019 including 14,930 races and 2,650 swimmers were obtained. The end-spurt for each race was determined by means...

Objective: It is unclear whether and to what extent COVID-19 infection poses health risks and a chronic impairment of performance in athletes. Identification of individual health risk is an important decision-making basis for managing the pandemic risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 in sports and return to play (RTP). Methods: This study aims 1) to a...

The global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic led to a lockdown in team sports in March 2020. Because the risk of virus transmission seems to correlate with the duration of close contacts, data on contact times are necessary to assess the risk of virus transmission in sports. In this study, an optical tracking system was used to determine contact times between pl...

Objective: It was intended to quantify cardiocirculatory stress and risk of professional football (soccer) coaches during competition. Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Setting: Medical screening examination and measurements during match. Participants: Seventeen coaches and 11 assistant coaches of the 2 highest German football leagu...

Purpose: To assess the short-term reliability of measurement instruments to quantify the acute psychophysiological response to load in adolescent soccer players in relation to biological maturity. Methods: Data were collected from 108 U12 to U17 soccer players on 2 consecutive weeks (pre, n = 32; at, n = 34; and post, n = 42 estimated peak heigh...

Given increased rates of breakthrough infection, German and other national authorities recommend heterologous booster vaccinations for Ad26.COV.2 vaccinated individuals, although data on immunogenicity and reactogenicity are lacking. We therefore recruited fifteen individuals who received the Ad26.COV.2 vaccination followed by a heterologous booste...

Background Players´ compliance with injury prevention programs (IPP) can significantly affect the effectiveness of such programs in injury reduction. Objective To evaluate players’ compliance with an individualized IPP to compared to the established FIFA 11+ IPP. Design Cross-sectional study Setting Semi-professional football. The data was obtai...

Background The Covid-19 pandemic caused a forced lockdown longer than the normal annual season break in Iranian football leagues. Return to football after such a long break without organized team training might increase the rate of injuries. Objective To investigate the effectiveness of a home-based injury prevention program (IPP) on reducing inju...

Objective To investigate the risk of transmission among potentially infectious SARS-CoV-2-positive football players while participating in training or matches at amateur, youth and professional levels. Methods Between August 2020 and March 2021, football players who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and participated in matches or training during the...

Purpose: Previous research investigating the impact of induced mental fatigue in football (soccer) has demonstrated associated performance decrements in physical, technical, tactical and decision-making performance. A common limitation amongst this research is the protocols used to induce mental fatigue which provides low ecological validity, and t...

Background There is growing concern surrounding the role of repetitive sub-concussive head impacts, such as football heading, on brain health.Objectives Three questions were addressed while only considering studies that observed heading exposure directly: (1) how frequently does heading occur within football training and matches, (2) what are the b...

SARS-CoV-2 testing using PCR is currently used as screening test to guide isolation and contact tracing. Among 1,700 players and staff of the German Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 who were regularly tested twice weekly, 98 individuals had a positive PCR. Among those, 11 asymptomatic cases were identified who only had a transient single positive PCR of...

Objectives To describe the perceived load, fatigue and recovery profiles during congested and non-congested schedules in international football tournaments. Design Retrospective single-cohort observational study Methods Internal load (session-rating of perceived exertion [s-RPE]) and perceived ratings of fatigue, muscle soreness, psychological st...

Muscle injuries of the hamstrings are among the most frequent in football and a main cause for significant time away from training and competition. The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate the loss of muscle volume in recreational football players three and six weeks after initial trauma. We hypothesized that significant muscle volum...

Background The assessment of biological maturity status plays an important role in talent identification and development programs. Aim To compare age at predicted adult height and BAUS skeletal age as indicators of biological maturity status in youth soccer players using a construct-validity approach. Subjects and methods Participants were 114 pl...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a mixed-method recovery intervention (MMR) consisting of active recovery, stretching, cold-water immersion, and massage on physical, technical, physiological, and perceptual recovery during and after a five-day simulated tennis tournament. Nine competitive male tennis players (age, 24.6±4.2 ye...

The purpose of this study was to investigate blood-based biomarkers and their regulation with regard to different recovery-stress states. A total of 35 male elite athletes (13 badminton, 22 soccer players) were recruited, and two venous blood samples were taken: one in a ‘recovered’ state (REC) after a minimum of one-day rest from exercise and anot...

Outscoring the opponent is the primary goal in football. In order to optimise scoring opportunities, it is important to understand the physical and tactical performance preceding such events. This observational study explored whether running behaviour prior to goal scoring opportunities (GSOs) in football related to the subsequent outcome (goal or...

Das Regenerationsmanagement im Leistungssport umfasst die Abschätzung von Ermüdungszustand und Regenerationsbedarf (Teil 1 dieser Beitragsreihe in Ausgabe 4/2021, S. 4-8) sowie den Einsatz regenerationsfördernder Maßnahmen (Teil 2 dieser Beitragsreihe). Zur Unterstützung der Regenerationsprozesse werden in der Sportpraxis verschiedene Regenerations...

Das Regenerationsmanagement im Leistungssport umfasst die Abschätzung von Ermüdungszustand und Regenerationsbedarf (Teil 1 dieser Beitragsreihe) sowie den Einsatz regenerationsfördernder Maßnahmen (Teil 2 dieser Beitragsreihe). Die Erfassung des Regenerationsbedarfs erfolgt durch die Dokumentation der externen Trainings- und Wettkampfbelastung, der...

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has affected worldwide sports competitions and training in both amateur and professional leagues. We thus aimed to investigate changes in different training modalities in elite and amateur football players following COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. Methods: In this cross-sectional study we applied a Likert scale-bas...

We aimed to analyze the number and type of contacts involving the risk of respiratory disease transmission during football match play.We analysed videos of 50 matches from different levels of play (professional, amateur, youth). Two reviewers evaluated the contacts of all players in the field of view in each match. We focused on between-player cont...

To assess head impact incidents (HIIs) and to distinguish diagnosed head injuries from other incidents, a video observation analysis of match HIIs was conducted in the German Bundesliga (2017/18 season). Video recordings of each match were screened to identify the respective events. Head injury data were identified by a prospective injury registry....

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used to evaluate the offensive success of a soccer team (e.g. penalty box entries) or player (e.g. pass completion rate). However, knowledge transfer from research to applied practice is understudied. The current study queried practitioners (n = 145, mean ± SD age: 36 ± 9 years) from 42 countries across differe...

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the effects of different ball types and characteristics on head acceleration during purposeful heading in youth football players. Experienced male and female players (n=61) aged between 12-17 years completed heading trials with 4 different balls (Ball 1 mass 192 grams(g), pressure 5.0 pounds per...

Purpose Force-velocity-power (F-v-P) profiling can illustrate an individual’s sprinting capabilities, but no study has explored the effect of different running surfaces on F-v-P outcomes. Method Twelve elite youth football players (age 16.3 ± 0.5 years, mass 67.3 ± 5.4 kg, height 176.2 ± 4.6 cm) performed two 30 m sprints on concrete and artificia...

The risk of viral transmission of SARS-CoV-2 associated with football (soccer) training and match play is unknown. When a player tested positive, health authorities use different policies for case management extending from continuation of football (“wait and watch” strategy) to a 2-week quarantine for all exposed players and staff. Therefore, studi...

Purpose: To identify whether the use of active recovery (ACT) the day after high-intensity interval training (HIIT) benefits recovery and to assess whether individual responses to ACT are repeatable. Methods: Eleven well-trained, male intermittent-sport athletes (age: 25.5 ± 1.8 y) completed 4 HIIT sessions, each separated by a 2-week washout pe...

Research has demonstrated that induced mental fatigue impairs soccer-specific technical, tactical and physical performance in soccer players. The findings are limited by the lack of elite players and low ecological validity of the tasks used to induce mental fatigue, which do not resemble the cognitive demands of soccer. The current study collected...

Both daily demands as well as training and competition characteristics in sports canresult in a psychobiological state of mental fatigue leading to feelings of tiredness, lackof energy, an increased perception of effort, and performance decrements. Moreover,optimal performance will only be achievable if the balance between recovery and stressstates...

Objective To investigate the underlying causes and regional patterns of sudden death in football (soccer) players worldwide to inform and improve existing screening and prevention measures. Methods From 2014 to 2018 cases of sudden cardiac death (SCD), survived sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and traumatic sudden death were recorded by media monitorin...

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate how restricted visual feedback affects performance in a football-specific skills assessment that incorporates the coupling of football a-specific perceptual information with football-specific motor actions. Methods: The Footbonaut is a 14x14m cage equipped with 8 ball dispensers and 64 targets measuring pass...

Objectives: Objectives were to examine subjective sleep quality and daytime sleepiness of the German ice hockey junior national team prior to the world championship to identify athletes of concern and areas of optimization with the intention of equally preventing injury and enhancing performance. Methods: Twenty-one athletes (Mage = 18.5 ± 0.6 yea...

Objectives Elite professional football players and staff are a unique group that might give insight into the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 infections in Germany and thus can serve as a model for a geographical distribution and an estimation of undetected infections. Methods In this prospective cohort study seroprevalence was determined twice in May a...

Objectives To quantify the incidence and characteristics of purposeful headers and non-intentional head impacts during male and female youth football (soccer) games in Australia. Design Cross-sectional observational study. Methods Ten match-videos (total n = 110) per playing age (under 13-20 males; under 13-17 females) from the 2019 National Prem...

Purpose: Cold-water immersion is increasingly used by athletes to support performance recovery. Recently, however, indications have emerged suggesting that the regular use of cold-water immersion might be detrimental to strength training adaptation. Methods: In a randomized crossover design, 11 participants performed two 8-week training periods...

To analyse the influence of distance, time point of competition, round and finishing position on end-spurt behaviour in swimming. Race results in 800-m and 1500-m freestyle swimming from the last 8 World Championships and 5 Olympic Games (1998-2016) including 1433 races and 528 swimmers were obtained. The end-spurt for each race was determined by m...

Purpose: To quantify the incidence and characteristics of purposeful headers and unintentional head impacts in football (soccer) in boys’ football over three seasons. Methods: This retrospective longitudinal study analysed purposeful headers and unintentional head impacts collected over three seasons (under-10 to under-12) using match video analysi...

Portable polysomnography (PSG) is a promising tool to assess sleep architecture and stages in athletes, yet there are hardly any research findings concerning comfort and practicability within the applied field. Thus, aim of this study was to examine to what extent self‐applied portable‐PSG has an influence on objective (measured via actigraphy) and...

Head injuries can result in substantially different outcomes, ranging from no detectable effect to transient functional impairments to life‐threatening structural lesions. In high‐level international football (soccer) tournaments, on average, one head injury occurs in every third match. Making the diagnosis and determining the severity of a head in...

Objectives: To evaluate the restart of the German Bundesliga (football (soccer)) during the COVID-19 pandemic from a medical perspective. Methods: Participants were male professional football players from the two highest German leagues and the officials working closely with them. Our report covers nine match days spread over 9 weeks (May to July...

Aus dem 6. GOTS-Expertenmeeting, diesmal zum Thema „Prävention“, ist nach viel Arbeit aller beteiligten Autoren das sehr gute, umfangreiche Buch „Primärprävention von Sportverletzungen“ hervorgegangen. Schwerpunkt-Themen darin sind: Epidemiologie von Sportverletzungen Volkswirtschaftliche Kosten von Sportverletzungen und Prävention Wie funktionie...

Background Exercise-based strategies are used to prevent muscle injuries in football and studies on different competitive-level populations may provide different results.Objectives To evaluate the effectiveness of exercise-based muscle injury prevention strategies in adult elite football.MethodsA systematic search was conducted in PubMed (MEDLINE),...