Hamstring injuries in footballers have risen significantly since 2001, with a corresponding rise in injury absence days, researchers report today.
A research team led by Professor Jan Ekstrand of Linkoping University in Sweden looked at the rate of hamstring injuries in male professional football players since the 2001/02 season.
Writing in the *British Journal of Sports Medicine* today, they state: "Hamstring muscle injuries increased in men’s professional football from 2001 to 2014. Since then, players train more intensely and their match calendar is more crowded.
"Many professional teams aim to prevent muscle injury as part of their strength and conditioning programmes."
They examined records of 3,909 players from 54 teams over the 21 consecutive seasons from 2001/02 to 2021/22, to view trends before and after 2014, when various initiatives began to aim to reduce the risk.
During the whole time period there were 2,636 hamstring injuries. This proportion of hamstring versus other injuries showed a rise from 12% during the 2001/02 season to 24% in the most recent season.
Injury absence days due to hamstring injuries rose from 10% to 20%. These injuries occurred during training as well as matches.
They report that during the eight seasons since 2014/15, hamstring injuries have increased significantly.
About 18% were recurrences, of which over two-thirds occurred within two months of the footballer’s return to play.
The authors say their results: "Provide a strong rationale for teams to keep focusing on preventing first and recurrent hamstring injuries."
They add that in the two months after injury, team clinicians should carefully monitor players while they complete evidence-based rehabilitation.
Ekstrand, J. et al. Hamstring injury rates have increased during recent seasons and now constitute 24% of all injuries in men’s professional football: the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study from 2001/02 to 2021/22. *Journal: British Journal of Sports Medicine* 7 December 2022; doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2021-105407
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