Injury prevention starts in Pre-Season!

July can only mean one thing for football (soccer) players – the dreaded pre-season! Fortunately for recreational, sub elite and elite level players gone are the days of running until you vomit, sand dunes and 2000 crunches!

Football is played by 1/4 billion people worldwide and injuries are common place.

5.8million people are treated in hospitals in Europe due to sports injuries each year.

The most common injuries are hamstring, hip, knee and ankle injuries. Pre-season is now seen as an excellent time of year to condition the players appropriately for the challenges ahead. This can include screening and injury prevention programmes. For sub elite and recreational teams this can be more challenging as resources are limited in time, personnel and finance.

FIFA’s medical department therefore looked at the evidence and created a programme to simplify this process and reduce injuries in football to increase participation.

The FIFA 11+ looks at the key areas of running, strength, plyometrics, and balance and creates a simple 20min programme which has now been proven to reduce injuries. Thorberg et al (2017) performed a systematic review and meta analysis of all the evidence and showed that the 11+ reduces these types of injuries by 39%!

Hamstring injuries are reduced by 60%, hip/groin 41%, knee 48%, and ankle injuries by 32%.

So if you play in a sub elite team then get your side to follow the 11+ warm up and to start reducing injuries and keep your best side on the field. Perform 2-3 times per week to start seeing the benefits.

Have a good season! ⚽️

Ref📖📚: Thorberg et al 2017, British Journal of Sports Medicine. (0):1-11.