Comparison of injuries in elite senior and junior Australian football

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1440-2440(98)80016-9Get rights and content

Three thousand and thirty one AFL and 1034 injuries in the VSFL U/18 competition were recorded by club doctors over the 1992, 1993 and 1994 seasons. Hamstring strains had the highest incidence (86.4 per 10,000 player hours) and prevalence (30.2 hours missed per 1000 hours) of any injury in the AFL, but were significantly less common in the U/18 competition. Other injuries which were common in both competitions were ankle sprains, thigh haematomas, concussion, groin strains and head lacerations. Injury prevalence was higher overall in the AFL, with lower limb muscle strains (hamstring, calf, quadriceps) being significantly more prevalent than in the U/18 competition. Injuries which were significantly more prevalent in the U/18 competition included stress fractures and concussion. Subsequent to this study, coaches and medical staff in the U/18 competition were made aware of the high risk of stress fractures in young footballers with heavy training loads. The AFL injury survey is ongoing and in the process of being computerised; risk factors for specific injuries with high rates are being studied further.

References (9)

  • BaquieP. et al.

    Injuries Presenting to an Australian Sports Medicine Centre: A 12-Month Study

    Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine

    (1997)
  • EstellJ. et al.

    Frequency of Injuries in Different Age-groups in an Elite Rugby League Club

    Australian Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport

    (1995)
  • LeeA.J. et al.

    Epidemiological comparison of injuries in school and senior club rugby

    British Journal of Sports Medicine

    (1996)
  • LowerT.

    Injury Data Collection in the Rugby Codes

    Australian Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport

    (1995)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (95)

  • Hip adduction and abduction strength profiles in elite, sub-elite and amateur Australian footballers

    2016, Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport
    Citation Excerpt :

    Groin injuries are prevalent amongst all levels of AF. However, it has been reported that junior elite players (under 18's), have a higher incidence of groin injuries compared to senior elite players.8 Differences in muscle strength may account for the differences in the reported injury rates amongst different playing levels, however there has been little research into the differences in muscle strength profiles across the different playing levels of AF.

  • Junior Australian football injury research: Are we moving forward?

    2013, Physical Therapy in Sport
    Citation Excerpt :

    Theoretically, due to the increased speed, length of the game, size of the players, and longer exposure hours (Burgess et al., 2012; Veale et al., 2010), the injury risk should be higher for elite senior AFL players. However, as previously discussed, there is evidence to the contrary (Orchard et al., 1998). Junior football research that shares the same definition as the AFL injury report will enable reliable comparison between the profiles and help to identify where senior research can be directly applied to the junior level, and where a different emphasis for investigations is required.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text