[Injuries in male and female adolescent soccer players]

This study addresses the epidemiology of injuries in adolescent male and female soccer players in Germany. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to analyse the injuries in male and female youth soccer players in Germany. This study was designed as a cross-sectional web-based survey. From March until December 2011 we investigated 1110 soccer players (male n = 841; female n = 269) aged 12 - 19 years (15.0 ± 2.0 years) from 60 clubs in Southern Germany. A total of 664 (79 %) of the 841 boys and 67 (25 %) of the 269 girls reported being injured due to soccer. The total number of injuries was 2373. Respectively the frequency of injury was 2.85 in boys and 7.10 in girls. The lower extremities were affected in 70 % of all reported cases. Strains were the most common injuries in the lower and upper extremities (35 %). The boys reported in 51.5 % of all injuries that the injury was non-contact in nature. In contrast, 52.1 % of the injuries in girls were reported as contact injuries. Similar amounts of injuries were observed in training versus games for both genders. Prevention procedures, such as a thorough warm-up, should be implemented before every game and training to reduce the risk of injury.