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Editorial
Is workload associated with injuries and performance in elite football? A call for action
  1. George P Nassis1,
  2. Tim J Gabbett2,3
  1. 1National Sports Medicine Programme, Excellence in Football Project, Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar
  2. 2School of Exercise Science, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  3. 3School of Human Movement Studies, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr George P Nassis, National Sports Medicine Programme, Excellence in Football Project, Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha 29222, Qatar; George.Nassis{at}aspetar.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-095988

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    In search of the Holy Grail

    What would a Premier League team pay for software that allowed it to optimise performance while reducing injuries? There are emerging data that would allow such software to be developed (and indeed, some software companies who already claim they can predict injuries before they occur), but no product is ready for prime time yet. In this editorial, we briefly direct the reader to data showing how workload is associated with injuries, highlight the challenges in training and match load monitoring and call for a consensus meeting to agree on the variables to be used to assess training and match load in football (soccer).

    What we know

    To date, few studies have assessed the effect of decreased recovery days between matches (ie, fixture congestion) as an index of match load on injury and performance. Running performance itself appears unaffected by fixture congestion,1 ,2 but injury rates may be higher1 or similar2 when playing two matches …

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter Follow George Nassis at @gnassis

    • Contributors GPN conceived the concept and drafted the manuscript. TJG critically reviewed the manuscript and approved it.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.