RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Communication quality between the medical team and the head coach/manager is associated with injury burden and player availability in elite football clubs JF British Journal of Sports Medicine JO Br J Sports Med FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine SP 304 OP 308 DO 10.1136/bjsports-2018-099411 VO 53 IS 5 A1 Jan Ekstrand A1 Daniel Lundqvist A1 Michael Davison A1 Michel D’Hooghe A1 Anne Marte Pensgaard YR 2019 UL http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/53/5/304.abstract AB Objectives We investigated medical staff interpretations and descriptions of internal communication quality in elite football teams to determine whether internal communication was correlated with injuries and/or player availability at training and matches.Methods Medical staff from 36 elite football clubs across 17 European countries produced 77 reports at four postseason meetings to provide their perceptions of internal communications in their teams. They also recorded data on individual players’ exposure to football and time-loss injuries.Results The injury burden and incidence of severe injuries were significantly higher in teams with low quality of communication between the head coach/manager and the medical team (scores of 1–2 on a 5-point Likert scale) compared with teams with moderate or high-quality scores (scores of 3–5; p=0.008 for both). Teams with low scores had 4%–5% lower training attendance (76% vs 83%, p=0.001) and less availability at matches (82% vs 88%, p=0.004) compared with teams with moderate or high communication quality scores.Conclusions The quality of internal communication within a team was correlated with injury rates, training attendance and match availability.