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Low injury rate strongly correlates with team success in Qatari professional football
  1. Cristiano Eirale1,
  2. J L Tol1,
  3. Abdulaziz Farooq2,
  4. Faten Smiley1,
  5. Hakim Chalabi3
  1. 1Department of Sports Medicine, Aspetar-Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar
  2. 2Department of Research and Education, Aspetar-Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar
  3. 3Aspetar Hospital, Doha, Qatar
  1. Correspondence to Dr Cristiano EiraleDepartment of Sports Medicine, Aspetar-Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha 29222, Qatar; cristiano.eirale{at}aspetar.com

Abstract

Background Although the incidence of football injuries should relate to team success there is little empirical evidence.

Objective We investigated the relationship between injury incidence and team success in Qatar first-division football clubs.

Methods Using a prospective cohort study design, we captured exposure and injuries in Qatar male elite football for a season. Club performance was measured by total league points, ranking, goal scored, goals conceded and number of matches won, drawn or lost.

Results Lower injury incidence was strongly correlated with team ranking position (r=0.929, p=0.003), more games won (r=0.883, p=0.008), more goals scored (r=0.893, p=0.007), greater goal difference (r=0.821, p=0.003) and total points (r=0.929, p=0.003).

Conclusions Lower incidence rate was strongly correlated with team success. Prevention of injuries may contribute to team success.

  • Epidemiology
  • Soccer

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

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