An Evidence Based Approach for Development of Exercise-Based Injury Prevention Programs for Soccer Players

Abstract

Aims: (1) Investigate the effectiveness of the F-MARC injury prevention programs (IPPs) in reducing injuries among soccer players. (2) Investigate the effectiveness of the IPPs that included the Nordic hamstring (NH) exercise. (3) Investigate and compare the implementation of IPPs in soccer. (4) Investigate the effect of adding a post-training FIFA11+ exercise program to the pre-training FIFA11+ injury prevention program in reducing injury rates among soccer players. Results:(1) Results showed that players participating in the FIFA11+ programs had a statistically significant reduction in the overall injury risk ratio (IRR) to 0.654 (95 % CI 0.537–0.798, p <0.001) and the lower extremity IRR to 0.612 (95 % CI 0.475–0.788, p <0.001). (2) Results showed that players participating in programs that included the NH exercise had a statistically significant reduction in hamstring IRR of 0.490 (95 % CI 0.291 – 0.827, p = 0.008). Teams using IPPs that included the NH exercise reduced hamstring injury rates up to 51% in the long term compared with the teams that do not use any injury prevention measures.(3) Results showed that coaches in Australia were significantly implementing IPPs, p = 0.020 and the FIFA 11+ program, p = 0.009 than Saudi Arabian coaches. Nonetheless, no significant difference in the full implementation of the FIFA11+ exercise components was found, p = 0.114. (4) The pre and post FIFA 11+ program reduced the total number of injuries χ2 (1) = 11.549, p = 0.001 and the incidence of initial injury χ2 (2) = 8.987, p = 0.003 significantly more than the pre FIFA 11+ program alone. However, the odds of suffering a recurrent injury were not different between the two groups χ2 (1) = 2.350, p = 0.125. Moreover, the severity level of injuries was not dependent upon whether or not the pre and post FIFA 11+ program was implemented χ2 (1) = 0.016, p = 0.898.