The impact of a mid-season FIFA World Cup™ on injury occurrence and patterns in French professional soccer clubs

ABSTRACT

This study retrospectively compared the effect of holding the 2022 FIFA World Cup™ (WC) mid-season (season 2022/23) on injury rates and patterns in French Ligue 1 soccer clubs. Epidemiological data in 17 clubs were prospectively recorded by their physicians. Time-loss injuries (injuries leading to a player being unable to fully participate in play over the following 72-hour period) were compared with those reported during a regular season (2021–22). In the WC season, an increase of approximately 23% (training + match-play) was observed for both the total number of injuries and knee, ankle and muscle injuries combined. Incidences for match-play injury overall and for the knee, ankle and muscle regions combined and the hamstrings and calf regions specifically also rose significantly (range: p < 0.05-p < 0.01). These results suggest that injury occurrence and patterns in French L1 soccer clubs were substantially affected during the 2022/23 season when a mid-season WC was held.

KEYWORDS:

• Injury
• incidence
• epidemiology
• football
• World Cup

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the participating Ligue 1 clubs and their respective medical staff for their help with this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.