The Effect of Playing Position on Injury Risk in Male Soccer Players: Systematic Review of the Literature and Risk Considerations for Each Playing Position
Authors’ Disclosure Statement: The authors report no actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to this article.
Dr. Della Villa is a Resident Sport Medicine Physician, Post Graduate School of Sport and Exercise Medicine, Alma Mater Studiorum Bologna University, Bologna, Italy; and Education and Research Department, Isokinetic Medical Group, FIFA Medical Center of Excellence, Bologna, Italy. Dr. Mandelbaum is an Orthopedic Surgeon, Cedar Sinai Kerlan Jobe Institute, Los Angeles, California. Dr. Lemak is an Orthopedic Surgeon, Lemak Health, Birmingham, Alabama.
Address correspondence to: Francesco Della Villa, MD, Education and Research Department, Isokinetic Medical Group, FIFA Medical Center of Excellence, Via di casteldebole 8/4 40132 Bologna, Italy. (tel, 00390512986800; email, f.dellavilla@isokinetic.com).
Francesco Della Villa, MD Bert R. Mandelbaum, MD Lawrence J. Lemak, MD . The Effect of Playing Position on Injury Risk in Male Soccer Players: Systematic Review of the Literature and Risk Considerations for Each Playing Position. Am J Orthop.
October 11, 2018
TAKE-HOME POINTS
Playing positions haven’t been extensively evaluated as an injury risk factor in elite, non-elite, and youth soccer (football).
Different playing positions may have different injury rates and patterns due to different load, different movement patterns, and peculiar combination of anticipated and non-anticipated (reactive movements).
The existing literature suggests that goalkeepers seem to be at lower general injury risk if compared to outfield players in male soccer (football).
There is also a tendency towards strikers (forwards) to be at higher risk of match (but not training) injuries. This result is however not consistent between all the studies considered and should be interpreted cautiously.
When studying injury risk in male soccer match and training injuries should be considered separately and playing position should be evaluated as a potential predictor of injury incidence.
References
ABSTRACT
Soccer (football) is a complex contact sport with a substantial risk of injury. As injury surveillance is the first step of the injury prevention paradigm, soccer epidemiology is well reported in the existing literature, but less is known about the actual role of player position on the general injury risk.
The goal of this study is to present the existing evidence regarding the influence of player’s position on general injury risk in male soccer.
A systematic review of the Medline database was carried out. Only English written studies on male soccer and citing playing position as a possible determinant of injury risk were included. One hundred and two full texts were evaluated for eligibility, and 11 studies were selected for the qualitative synthesis.
Of the 11 studies included in the systematic review, 5 didn’t find any significant correlation with between player’s position and general injury risk, while the remaining 6 studies found player’s position to be correlated with injury risk, with mixed findings depending on each study. The most consistent finding was a tendency for goalkeepers (GKs) to sustain less injuries compared to outfield players. When considering only the studies reporting just the match injury risk, forwards seemed to be at higher risk, even if there wasn’t a complete agreement.
Few studies have evaluated a possible effect of playing position on general injury risk in male soccer. There is no agreement if weather or not different playing positions are associated to a higher injury risk. GKs seem to be at lower risk of injury when compared to outfield players.
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