Injuries in elite youth football players: a prospective three-year study.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and nature of injuries and the influence of age on injury patterns in elite youth football. METHODS Fifty-two players of the Under-17 (U-17) male national youth football team were followed during their progression to U-18 and U-19. Individual player exposure and injuries were recorded during the three year study period. RESULTS Injury incidence was five times higher during matches than training. When medical attention and time loss injuries were considered, injury incidence increased during matches and decreased during training with increasing age. Traumatic injuries were more frequent in matches and were linked with increased age. Overuse injuries were two times higher during training than matches in the U-17 team. The majority of traumatic match injuries (78.3%) led to time loss and the majority of time loss injuries occurred due to traumatic mechanism (62.1%). The majority of muscle and entire ligament injuries occurred during training and contusions during competition. Re-injury rate was 25% and were all overuse injuries. CONCLUSION Injury incidences increased during matches and decreased during training. More match injuries were caused by traumatic mechanisms as players aged. Player age might contribute to injury incidence and characteristics in youth football.