Background Injury rates in football are closely associated with team performance. Teams
are more likely to lose matches in which they have suffered injuries, and teams with
fewer injuries have significantly better results both in international tournaments and in
national leagues. Injuries can have both high short- and long-term consequences for an
individual player's health and career. Illness rates in professional football is lower
than injury rates, but it is unclear whether illness rates are higher in international
tournaments, which often include travel, exposure to different environments, high match
significance, and match congestion.
Injury surveillance is a cornerstone in the development of injury prevention programs.
Injury and illness prevention strategies are continuously being developed and improved,
and it is therefore important with ongoing surveillance. Additionally, there has been
scientific advances in methodology, which can ensure more detailed and accurate
information.
Objectives The primary objective is to provide an overview of the incidence and
characteristics of time-loss injuries and illnesses during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
The primary variables of interest are time-loss injuries and time-loss illnesses.
Time-loss is defined as inability of a player to complete the current or future
training session or match.
Injury is defined as tissue damage or other derangement of normal physical function
resulting from rapid or repetitive transfer of kinetic energy.
Illness is defined as a health-related complaint or disorder experienced by an
athlete, not considered as an injury.
A secondary aim is to analyse injury mechanisms through match video footage of the
observed time-loss injuries.
Design Prospective observational cohort study.
This research project will be performed at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which is played
November 20th and December 18th, 2022 in Qatar.
Study duration The study will start from the first day of training with the national team
prior the tournament until the day of the last match of the tournament. Consequently, the
number of recordings will vary between teams depending on the duration of their
pre-tournament training (usually 1-3 weeks), and their performance and progression
through the tournament. In order to assess the severity of injuries (based on the length
of time a player is unable to play for), all injuries are to be recorded until they are
fully rehabilitated, even if this is after the end of the tournament. Each contact person
therefore also needs to report when an injured player who has left the tournament has
returned to full training with their club team after the tournament.
Demographic information Individual demographic information, including age, height,
weight, playing position, and leg dominance (preferred kicking leg), is collected
following inclusion.
Injury & illness registration Data on injury and illness is gathered following the
recommended methodology in the football extension of the International Olympic Committee
consensus statement on methods for recording and reporting of epidemiological data on
injury and illness in sport. This includes characteristics such as mode of onset, injury
mechanism, diagnosis and classification according to body area, tissue, and pathology
type, and illness categories for organ system and etiology. Time-loss will be counted in
number of days.
Exposure registration Training and match exposure will be recorded in minutes for each
participant for the duration of the tournament. Training exposure includes for example
any sports-specific training, strength and conditioning sessions, and active recovery
sessions. Illness exposure will be recorded in days for each participant from their first
day of training until their last match.
Descriptive statistics is used to provide an overview of the participant demographics and
injury and illness occurrence. Injury incidence is calculated as number of injuries per
1000 hours of exposure, and injury burden is calculated as time-loss days per 1000 hours
of exposure. Injury incidence and burden will be reported for training and match injuries
separately. Illness incidence is calculated per 365 exposure days. Potential missing data
will be excluded from analysis and reported accordingly.
Sample size No a priori sample size calculation is performed as we will attempt to
include all eligible participants.
