Injury risk and maturity status in italian elite young football player

Background. Football is one of the world’s most popular sport with most players being younger than 18 years. Playing football can induce beneficial health effects in youth, but there is also a high risk of injury. In young football players, the relationship between injury risk in the different periods from peak height velocity (PHV) remains unclear. The objective of the study was to investigate the associations between the injury risk and injury burden in young Italian football players in different periods from PHV (pre-PHV, PHV and Post-PHV). Methods. One hundred and forty-one young players (age = 13.9 ± 0.8 years) were subdivided in three groups on the basis of maturity status: PHV was set by taking 6 months before and 6 months after the age at PHV; the 12 months before this year were allocated as the year before PHV (Pre-PHV); the 12 months after this year were allocated as the year after PHV (Post-PHV). The number of injuries was calculated for each player per year; injuries were classified by location, type, body-site and mechanism of injury (traumatic or overuse). Training and match injury incidence was also calculated and resulted 4.2 ± 6.9 per 1000 h and 10.0 ± 34.2 per 1000 h, respectively. Results. In total 25214 hours of exposure were recorded. A total of 83 injuries were reported. Most injuries (77%) were located in the lower limbs; the most common injuries were joint/ligament injuries (36%). Traumatic injury showed a tendency to increase from the year before PHV to the year of PHV, and after this period a decrease can be observed; while, overuse injuries incidence remains constant until PHV, and then decreased in the year after PHV, albeit the differences were not statistically significant. A non-significant higher training injury incidence was found at PHV, while match injury incidence was higher at Pre-PHV. Days missed due to injury show an increase up to PHV, and then a considerable decrease in the year after PHV; the difference among groups were statistically significant (p = 0.039); moreover, the effect size between PHV and Post-PHV was moderate. The mean of exposure shows a significant increase from the year before PHV to the year after PHV (p = 0.0089), furthermore, the effect size between Pre-PHV and Post-PHV was large. Conclusions. The results of this study on young Italian football players confirm the overall increased vulnerability of the athletes in the PHV period. Great attention should be given to the maturity status of the subjects. To try to limit injuries, training programs should be calibrated on the state of maturity of the players and not on their chronological age.