Diet Quality, Supplementation, and Professional Support as Markers of Injury Load in Polish Football Players: A...

Background/Objectives: American football (AF) is a contact sport with a high injury risk, where an integrated model of interdisciplinary care may support recovery. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between diet quality, supplementation, dietician's and physiotherapist's support, injury rates and musculoskeletal pain among AF players in Poland. Methods: The study involved 53 male players from the FA Panthers Wrocław team and was conducted using the KomPAN questionnaire and an original survey on supplementation, injuries and pain intensity. Results: The results showed that, although players using supplements had a significantly greater proportion of healthy foods in their overall diet (p = 0.02), they did not report fewer injuries in the last 12 months and 7 days than those who did not use supplements (p = 0.87; p = 0.58, respectively). However, a positive correlation (p≤ 0.001, r = 0.53) was found between the healthy diet index and the number of injuries. Those who used the services of a dietitian and physiotherapist showed a higher quality of diet (p= 0.02; p= 0.02, respectively) and reported higher total pain intensity (p= 0.009; p= 0.03), while those who used only the services of a physiotherapist reported higher average pain intensity (p≤ 0.001). Conclusions: These results suggest that supplementation and professional support in this group are primarily due to exposure after injuries caused by severe pain, rather than serving a preventive function.