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doi:10.1136/bjsm.2005.025270
2006;40;193-201 Br. J. Sports Med.
McCrory and W H Meeuwisse
C W Fuller, J Ekstrand, A Junge, T E Andersen, R Bahr, J Dvorak, M Hägglund, P
injuries
collection procedures in studies of football (soccer)
Consensus statement on injury definitions and data
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REVIEW
Consensus statement on injury definitions and data
collection procedures in studies of football (soccer) injuries
C W Fuller, J Ekstrand, A Junge, T E Andersen, R Bahr, J Dvorak, M Ha¨gglund, P McCrory,
W H Meeuwisse
...............................................................................................................................
Br J Sports Med 2006;40:193–201. doi: 10.1136/bjsm.2005.025270
Variations in definitions and methodologies have created
differences in the results and conclusions obtained from
studies of football (soccer) injuries, making interstudy
comparisons difficult. Therefore an Injury Consensus Group
was established under the auspices of Fe´de´ration
Internationale de Football Association Medical Assessment
and Research Centre. A nominal group consensus model
approach was used. A working document on definitions,
methodology, and implementation was discussed by the
group. Iterative draft statements were prepared and
circulated to members of the group for comment before the
final consensus statement was produced. Definitions of injury,
recurrent injury, severity, and training and match exposures
in football together with criteria for classifying injuries in terms
of location, type, diagnosis, and causation are proposed.
Proforma for recording players’ baseline information,
injuries, and training and match exposures are presented.
Recommendations are made on how the incidence of match
andtraininginjuriesshouldbereportedandachecklistof
issues and information that should be included in published
reports of studies of football injuries is presented.
...........................................................................
See end of article for
authors’ affiliations
.......................
Correspondence to:
Dr Fuller, Centre for Sports
Medicine, University of
Nottingham, Nottingham
NG7 2UH, UK; colin.
fuller@nottingham.ac.uk
Accepted
15 December 2005
.......................
It has been well documented that variations in
definitions and methodologies create signifi-
cant differences in the results and conclusions
obtained from studies of sports injuries.
1–11
Medical journals have developed strategies, such
as the CONSORT statement
12
for randomised
controlled trials, to address these problems and
to improve the quality of published studies.
However, despite continuing calls for common
methodologies to be adopted, fundamental dif-
ferences in definitions and implementation
strategies have persisted in published studies of
football injuries. This consensus statement aims
to establish definitions and methodology, imple-
mentation, and reporting standards that should
be adopted for studies of injuries in football and
to provide the basis for studies of injuries in
other team sports.
METHOD
After informal discussions during the 1st World
Congress on Sports Injury Prevention in Oslo in
June 2005, the Fe´de´ration Internationale de
Football Association Medical Assessment and
Research Centre (F-MARC) agreed to host an
Injury Consensus Group comprising a range of
experts involved in the study of football injuries.
A nominal group consensus model approach
13
was adopted for producing a consensus state-
ment on definitions and methodological issues
related to studies of football injuries. A working
document identifying key issues associated with
data collection and reporting in surveillance, risk
factor, and intervention studies was produced to
structure discussions at a two day meeting in
Zurich. After this meeting, iterative draft con-
sensus statements were prepared and circulated
to members of the group for comment before this
final statement was produced.
DEFINITIONS
Injury
An injury is defined as:
Any physical complaint sustained by a player
that results from a football match or football
training, irrespective of the need for medical
attention or time loss from football activities.
An injury that results in a player receiving
medical attention is referred to as a ‘‘medical
attention’’ injury, and an injury that results in
a player being unable to take a full part in
future football training or match play as a
‘‘time loss’’ injury.
‘‘Medicalattention’’referstoanassessmentofa
player’s medical condition by a qualified medical
practitioner. ‘‘A player being unable to take a full
part in future football training or match play’’ is
independent of whether a training session actually
takes place on the day after the injury or whether a
player is selected to play in the next match. The
term ‘‘future’’ refers to any time after the onset of
injury, including the day of injury. It is important
to recognise that variations in medical support and
practiceandinanindividualplayer’stoleranceto
pain may create differences in the incidence of
injury reported in studies. Multiple injuries sus-
tained by a player in a single event should be
recorded as one injury with multiple diagnoses.
Injuries that are unrelated to football competition
or training should not be recorded in studies of
football injuries. Players may also experience
problems other than physical complaints, such as
illnesses, diseases, and mental complaints, and it
may be appropriate in specific studies to record
these problems; however, their incidence should be
reported separately from the incidence of physical
complaints.
193
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Recurrent injury
A recurrent injury is defined as:
An injury of the same type and at the same site as an index
injury and which occurs after a player’s return to full
participation from the index injury. A recurrent injury
occurring within two months of a player’s return to full
participation is referred to as an ‘‘early recurrence’’, one
occurring 2–12 months after a player’s return to full
participation as a ‘‘late recurrence’’, and one occurring
more than 12 months after a player’s return to full
participation as a ‘‘delayed recurrence’’.
It is essential to adopt the same recording regimen for
recurrent injuries as that adopted for index injuries—that is,
‘‘all’’, ‘‘medical attention’’, or ‘‘time loss’’ injuries—because the
recording regimen affects thereported incidences of both index
and recurrent injuries. When recurrent injuries are recorded,
the site of the injury, such as the specific muscle or ligament,
rather than the general location of the injury, such as the thigh
or knee, should be considered. Index injuries sustained before
the start of a study should also be considered when identifying
an injury as a recurrence. Injuries such as contusions,
lacerations, and concussions and sequelae resulting from an
index injury should not be recorded as recurrences. Recall bias
6
is less likely to affect the recording of early recurrent injuries
than it is for late and delayed recurrent injuries because of the
shorter time period between the two injuries.
Injury severity
Injury severity is defined as:
The number of days that have elapsed from the date of
injury to the date of the player’s return to full participation
in team training and availability for match selection.
The day on which an injury occurs is day zero and is not
counted when determining the severity of an injury.
Therefore, if a player cannot participate fully on the day of
an injury but is available for full participation the next day,
the incident should be recorded as a time loss injury with a
severity of zero days. If an injured player leaves a study or a
study finishes before a player’s injury has resolved, the
attending clinician should estimate the total number of days
that would have elapsed before the player returned to full
participation if the player had remained in the study or the
study had continued. If a player retires from play as a direct
consequence of an injury sustained during a study before
returning to full participation, the injury should be reported
separately as a ‘‘career ending injury’’. Occasionally, an injury
may have multiple diagnoses; in these cases, it is important
to distinguish between the overall severity of the injury event
and the severities of the individual diagnoses. The purpose of
some studies may dictate that injury outcome measures other
than days of absence, such as individual or team perfor-
mances, costs associated with rehabilitation, insured and
uninsured costs, or the long term impact on a player’s quality
of life, should be recorded.
Match exposure
Match exposure is defined as:
Play between teams from different clubs.
Match exposure between teams from the same club should
be regarded as training exposure. Any match activity that
forms a part of a player’s rehabilitation from injury should
not be recorded as match exposure.
Training exposure
Training exposure is defined as:
Team based and individual physical activities under the
control or guidance of the team’s coaching or fitness staff
that are aimed at maintaining or improving players’
football skills or physical condition.
Pre-match warm up and post-match cool down sessions
should be recorded as training exposure. Motivational team
talks, classroom discussions about tactics, and sessions with
sports psychologists, nutritionists, etc should not be recorded
as training exposure. Personal training activities undertaken
by players away from their team and which are not planned
by the team’s coaching or fitness staff should not be recorded
as training exposure. Any training activity forming a part of a
player’s rehabilitation from injury should not be recorded as
training exposure.
Methodological issues
Studies should be of a prospective, cohort design to minimise
the occurrence of errors associated with recall, which is a
problem with retrospective study designs. Cohort studies that
record players’ exposures enable relations between the
incidence of injury and risk factors in the study population
to be explored.
Interpretation of injury definition
Most studies will record medical attention and/or time loss
injuries. Table 1 presents examples of how specific incidents
should be recorded under these recording regimens.
Injury classification
Injuries should be classified by location, type, body side, and
mechanism of injury (traumatic or overuse) and whether the
injury was a recurrence. In this context, a traumatic injury
refers to an injury resulting from a specific, identifiable event,
and an overuse injury to one caused by repeated micro-
trauma without a single, identifiable event responsible for the
injury. In some studies, diagnoses of injuries may be
required; in these cases, a qualified medical practitioner
should provide a specific written diagnosis or use a sport
specific injury coding system, such as the Orchard
14
system.
Location of injury
The location of injuries should be recorded using the
categories listed in table 2. The location of injuries should
be recorded using the individual categories indicated but
where the number of injuries in a study is small, it may be
necessary to combine individual location categories into the
main groupings for analysis purposes.
Type of injury
The type of injury should be recorded using the categories
listed in table 3. The type of injuries should be recorded using
the individual categories indicated, but where the number of
injuries in a study is small, it may be necessary to combine
individual type categories into the main groupings for
analysis purposes. If the purpose of a study is to investigate
other problems, such as illnesses, diseases, or mental
complaints, these should be recorded under separate head-
ings from those listed in table 3.
Other injury classification issues
Injuries should also be classified as to whether they occurred
during a match or training session and whether they were the
result of contact with another player or other object. It may
also be appropriate to record whether the action causing the
injury was a violation of the laws of football.
194 Fuller, Ekstrand, Junge, et al
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Study population
The study population should normally consist of more than
one team of players and the study should last for a minimum
period of one season (including preseason), 12 months, or the
duration of a tournament. Players joining/leaving the cohort—
for example, through transfer into/out of a team—should be
included/excluded from the date of joining/leaving. Injuries
and exposures should be documented for every player within
the cohort throughout the study period. Players who have an
existing injury at the start of a study should not be excluded
from the study, but their existing injuries should not be
included as part of the study. For intervention and risk factor
studies and for studieswhere the objective is to compare injury
rates between groups, power calculations should be used to
determine the population size required to identify significant
differences in the effects being investigated.
15
Implementation issues
Standardised data collection forms, which can be in electro-
nic or paper format, should be used consistently throughout a
study. Table 4 presents an overview of the forms that are
normally required for a study of injuries in football.
Player’s baseline information form
The exact nature of the baseline information required will
depend on the purpose of the study; however, for surveillance
studies, basic information,such as the player’s age, sex, playing
Table 2 Main groupings and categories for classifying injury location
Main grouping Category
Equivalent
OSICS body
area character
Head and neck Head/face H
Neck/cervical spine N
Upper limbs Shoulder/clavicula S
Upper arm U
Elbow E
Forearm R
Wrist W
Hand/finger/thumb P
Trunk Sternum/ribs/upper back C, D
Abdomen O
Lower back/pelvis/sacrum B, L
Lower limbs Hip/groin G
Thigh T
Knee K
Lower leg/Achilles tendon Q, A
Ankle A
Foot/toe F
OSICS, Orchard sports injury classification system.
14
Table 1 Examples of how to record injuries under different recording regimens
Example
Injury recording regimen
Medical attention Time loss
1. A defender sustained a hamstring injury during a match that required
30 days of rehabilitation before he could return to full training. The player
sustained another hamstring injury to the same muscle (same leg) 3 weeks
later and required a further 50 days of rehabilitation before he could return
to full training.
First incident should be recorded
as an injury (severity: 30 days);
second incident as a recurrence
(severity: 50 days).
First incident should be recorded as an
injury (severity: 30 days); second
incident as a recurrence (severity:
50 days).
2. A goalkeeper developed shoulder instability and sought medical attention;
the condition did not prevent him from taking a full part in team training or
competition even though it caused him some pain. The team physiotherapist
recommended an individual training programme for the goalkeeper to avoid
aggravating the condition.
Episode should be recorded as
an injury (severity: 0 days).
Episode should not be recorded as
long as he remained able to take a full
part in team training.
3. A defender sustained a groin injury, which the team doctor decided did
not warrant immediate treatment; the player continued to take a full part in
team training and competition. The player underwent elective surgery
2 months later and required 90 days rehabilitation.
Incident should be recorded as an
injury (severity: 0 days); when the
player underwent elective surgery,
the severity should be reclassified
to 90 days.
Incident should be recorded as an
injury at the time of the player’s elective
surgery (severity: 90 days).
4. A defender suffered groin pain that did not result in time loss; this
incident was followed by a 1 month pain-free period; he then suffered a
further period of groin pain, which prevented him from training and which
required 21 days of rehabilitation.
First episode should be recorded
as an injury (severity: 0 days);
second episode should be recorded
as a recurrence (severity: 21 days).
First episode should not be recorded;
second episode should be recorded as
an injury (severity: 21 days).
5. A forward sustained an ankle sprain during a match but continued to
play; he received medical attention after the match. He completed full team
training using ankle taping (with some pain) for 6 days but aggravated the
injury during the next match; he then required 15 days of rehabilitation.
First incident should be recorded
as an injury (severity: 0 days) and
when the second incident occurred
the severity of the index injury
should be reclassified to 15 days.
First incident should not be recorded
and the second incident should be
recorded as an injury (15 days).
6. A midfield player sustained a laceration to the face during a morning
training session; the doctor sutured the cut but the player missed the
afternoon training session. The player was able to take a full part in training
on the following day.
Incident should be recorded as an
injury (severity: 0 days).
Incident should be recorded as an
injury (severity: 0 days).
Consensus on methods for studies of football injuries 195
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position, stature, and body mass should be recorded, as these
parameters define the study population. For other studies, such
as interventions and investigations of relations between risk
factors and the incidence of injury, more detailed baseline
information may be required. Appendix A provides an example
of a form for collecting a player’s baseline information.
Injury form
The injury form should include the team’s and player’s study
reference numbers, date of injury, whether the injury was
sustained during a match or training exposure, description of
the circumstances surrounding the injury, and the date of the
player’s return to full participation. The nature of the injury
(location, type, side injured, recurrence) and the main
mechanism (traumatic or overuse) should also be recorded.
One free text section should be provided to enable a specific
injury diagnosis or an injury classification code to be
recorded. A second free text section may be required for
some studies if additional study specific information is
required. Injury report forms should be completed as soon
as possible after the injury was sustained to avoid inaccura-
cies associated with recording information retrospectively.
However, injury information should be revised/updated if
further information is obtained at a later date—for example,
from diagnostic tests. Appendix B provides an example of a
form for recording injury information.
Match and training exposure form
The form should record the date, type, and duration (minutes)
of each exposure. Exposures can either be collected on an
individual player basis or for a group of players. Collecting
individual player exposures, especially for training sessions, is
very time consuming, and this level of detail should only be
recorded if the information is specifically required to meet the
aims of the study. However, for studies where players are
exposed in a range of situations, such as club and country, or
where the intention is to investigate relations between the
incidence of injuries and individual risk factors, the actual
exposure times for each player must be recorded. If data are
collected on a group basis, the number of matches and training
sessions, duration of each training session, and number of
players attending each training session must be recorded.
Training exposure data should preferably be collected for each
training session, but, as a minimum, the information should be
collected on a weekly basis. It may also be appropriate,
depending on the purpose of the study, to record other variables,
suchastheplayingsurfaceortypeoftrainingundertaken.
For studies recording team match exposure, the total player-
match exposure time in hours for a team is given by
(N
M
P
M
D
M
)/60 where N
M
is the number of team matches
played, P
M
is the number of players in the team (normally 11),
and D
M
is the duration of the match in minutes (normally 90).
Collecting match exposure data on a team basis rather than for
individual players does not take into account exposure time
lost because players are temporarily or permanently absent
during a match through, for example, treatment or receipt of a
red card. For studies recording team training exposure, the
total training exposure time in hours is given by the sum of the
values for (P
T
D
T
)/60 for every training session throughout the
study, where P
T
is the number of players attending a training
session and D
T
is the duration of the training session in
minutes. Collecting team based training data rather than
individual data does not take into account training exposure
time lost when a player does not complete a full training
session. Appendix C provides an example of a form for
collecting match and training exposures for individual players,
and appendix D provides an example for collecting team
training and match exposures.
Table 3 Main groupings and categories for classifying type of injury
Main grouping Category
Equivalent OSICS
pathology character
Fractures and bone stress Fracture F
Other bone injuries G, Q, S
Joint (non-bone) and
ligament
Dislocation/subluxation
Sprain/ligament injury
D, U
J, L
Lesion of meniscus or cartilage C
Muscle and tendon Muscle rupture/tear/strain/cramps M, Y
Tendon injury/rupture/tendinosis/bursitis T, R
Contusions Haematoma/contusion/bruise H
Laceration and skin lesion Abrasion K
Laceration K
Central/peripheral nervous
system
Concussion (with or without loss of consciousness)
Nerve injury
N
N
Other Dental injuries G
Other injuries
OSICS, Orchard sports injury classification system.
14
Table 4 Standard forms required for a study of injuries in football
Form Information required
Who should provide the
information?
When should the information
be provided?
Player’s baseline
information
Player’s characteristics Each player When a player enters the study
Injury report Classification and
circumstances of injury
Medical professionals After each recordable injury
Match and training
exposure
Player’s match and training
exposure time
Coaches Every match and training
session
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Other implementation issues
The purpose and setting of individual studies determine
whether all, medical attention, or time loss injuries are
recorded. Whichever injury recording regimen is adopted, it
is essential that it is used consistently for all aspects of the
study. Although collecting information on injuries without
time loss may be important for investigating wider health
issues, it must be recognised that this injury recording regimen
places higher time demands on the medical personnel involved
with the study. Although the exact format of the documenta-
tion required will depend on the specific aims and objectives of
a study, the forms presented in appendices A–D provide a
format for collecting the minimum amount of information
that would normally be required. When new procedures are
implemented, they should always be subjected to a pilot study
before the main investigation is started.
The format and content of each study should be approved
by and follow the protocols defined by an appropriate
institutional ethics committee. Players should be assigned
individual reference codes that are known only to the
personnel recording information in order to maintain players’
confidentiality when the data are analysed. Players taking
part in a study should have the purpose and format of the
study explained to them using face to face presentations or a
detailed information sheet. Individual players must always
retain the right not to take part and to withdraw from a study
at any time. To maximise the level of compliance, a number
of supporting initiatives can be implemented, such as
providing written instructions for all personnel completing
the forms and providing examples of completed forms. It is
beneficial to identify a recognised contact person at each
team, who does not have to be the person completing the
forms. Regular contact should be maintained with each team,
and feedback should be provided at appropriate points in
time throughout the study.
REPORTING DATA
The cohort should be clearly defined by reporting the numbers
of participants and teams taking part at the beginning of the
study, the numbers of participants and teams dropping out and
joining during the study, together with the age range and sex of
the participants, the standard of play, and the duration of the
study. Numbers of injuries occurring during matches and
training should be reported separately, together with the
corresponding match and training exposures so that the
incidences of both match and training injuries can be
calculated. The incidence of injuries should normally be
reported as the number of injuries per 1000 player-hours; in
studies reporting the incidence of match injuries, it may also be
appropriate to report the number of injuries per match. Where
possible, the incidences of all, medical attention, and time loss
injuries should be reported separately, as this enables interstudy
comparisons of results. The incidence of injury expressed as a
function of total exposure time (match plus training) should
only be reported if the incidences of match and training injuries
are also reported separately. The incidence of injury should not
be reported as a function of athlete exposures because the
duration of individual exposures will vary. If the aim of a study
is to measure the incidence of injury associated with specific
training activities, then the incidence of training injuries should
be reported as a function of the players’ exposure to the specific
training activities, such as the number of injuries during weight
training per 1000 player-hours of weight training.
The average and median severity of injuries should be
reported in days together with the distribution of injuries
grouped according to their severity: slight (0 days); minimal
(1–3 days); mild (4–7 days); moderate (8–28 days); severe
(.28 days); career ending. The severity of injuries reported
will be influenced by the recording regimen adopted in a
study. The locations and types of injuries should be reported
as numbers and percentages for both match and training
Table 5 Checklist of issues that should be included in reports of studies of football injuries
Section Issues Reported on page
Title Identify the type and purpose of the study, for example, injury surveillance to measure or intervention to
reduce the incidence of injuries.
Abstract Present a structured summary of the study, including Aims, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions.
Introduction Discuss background to and aims, objectives, and hypotheses for the study.
Methods Design of study, for example, prospective cohort, randomised controlled trial.
Study population, including the organisational setting and geographic location, the numbers of players and
teams involved, age range and sex of participants, level of play, and the duration of the study.
Describe medical personnel involved and the frequency of recording injury and exposure data.
Definitions of injury and exposure used in study.
Planned interventions and the criteria used for selecting the intervention and control groups.
Primary and secondary outcome measures, such as the number of medical attention/time loss injuries,
cost of treatment, and the incidence and severity of injuries and recurrences.
Methods used to define the study size in risk factor and intervention studies, for example, power calculations.
Methods, such as training, used to improve the quality of data collection.
Statistical methods used to compare groups and subgroups.
Results Report for the study population and each subgroup assessed:
numbers of match and training injuries,
numbers of match and training recurrences,
match and training exposures.
Present with appropriate statistical information for the study population and each subgroup:
baseline data on the study population,
incidences of match and training injuries,
incidence of recurrences,
severities of match and training injuries,
distributions of injury locations and types for match and training,
cross tabulations of injury locations and types for match and training.
Present, together with inferential statistics, other summary data that are appropriate to the aims and objectives
of the study.
Discussion Interpretation of study results, taking into account the study aims, objectives, and hypotheses and the existing
evidence in the literature.
Comment on generalisations that can be reached from the study results.
Consensus on methods for studies of football injuries 197
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injuries. It is also beneficial to cross tabulate the injury
locations (table 3) with the types of injury (table 4), as this
provides an understanding of the overall nature of the
injuries recorded in a study.
If the times of match injuries are recorded, the injuries
should be grouped into defined periods of the game (0–15, 16–
30, 31–45 (+injury time), 46–60, 61–75, 76–90 (+injury time)
minutes) and reported as percentages of injuries occurring in
each of these periods; injuries sustained during extra time
should be reported in a separate ‘‘extra time’’ period. Other
results reported will depend on the specific purpose of the study
but may include, for example, comparisons of the incidence
and severity of injuries within subgroups of the study
population, such as age, sex, skill level, or training programme.
In each case, the data should be presented to an equivalent
standard to the examples described above.
Finally, table 5 provides a checklist of issues that should be
included in reports of studies on football injuries. The checklist
is intended to describe the minimum information that should
be included in a report; the aims and objectives of specific
studies will dictate whether other information should also be
presented. In principle, reports of studies should include
sufficient information for readers to understand how a study
was performed, to judge the quality of the information
collected, and to assess the reliability of the findings presented.
Authors’ affiliations
.....................
C W Fuller, Centre for Sports Medicine, University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, UK
J Ekstrand, M Ha¨ gglund, Department of Social Medicine and Public
Health Science, Linko¨ping University, Linko¨ping, Sweden
A Junge, J Dvorak, FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre,
Schulthess Clinic, Zurich, Switzerland
T E Andersen, R Bahr, Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center, Oslo,
Norway
P McCrory, Centre for Health, Exercise and Sports Medicine, University
of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
W H Meeuwisse, Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre, University of
Calgary, Calgary, Canada
Competing interests: none declared
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APPENDIX A
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