Background There are few studies of injury rates in Russia's Volleyball Championship.

Objective To investigate incidence and characteristics of injuries in one male volleyball team.

Design Prospective cohort pilot study, 2009–2010 (preseason and the competitive season).

Setting Professional athletes of elite male division of Russia's Championship (Super League).

Participants 16 players had been taking part in preparation and competitions from 23 June 2009 to 15 May 2010 as The ‘Lokomotiv-Belogorie’ volleyball team.

Interventions Volleyball exposure during training and matches was recorded by the coach. The team physician recorded all injuries which had occurred. The incidence of injury was expressed as number of injuries per 1000 player hours.

Results 105 injuries were recorded, 22 (20.95%) resulted in one or more days of missed practice or competition. The overall incidence of time-loss injuries was estimated as 2.37 per 1000 player hours. The game incidence was 10.7 and the practice incidence was 1.84. Majority of injuries (86.36%) had slight or minor severity. The most common location of time-loss injuries was the ankle/foot (32.82%), followed by the spine/back (27.27%) and shoulder (13.63%). The most common types were sprain (22.73%) and overuse injuries (63.64%). Many slight and overuse injuries did not cause player to stop playing (only 32.6% of the acute and 11.86% of the overuse were time-loss injuries). Among all registered injuries the prevalence locations were spine/back (22 cases or 21.95%), shoulder (21 cases or 20%) and knee (18 cases or 17.14%) and 71.43% were overuse and 28.57% traumatic.

Conclusions The study revealed a high injury incidence rate in games compared to practice. The majority of injuries were overuse injuries. Slight and minor injuries often occurred and most of them were not time-loss. Future investigations are required.