Who Is Going to Get Hurt? Predicting Injuries in Professional Soccer

Injury prevention has a fundamental role in professional soccer due to the high cost of recovery for players and the strong influence of injuries on a club’s performance. In this paper we provide a predictive model to prevent injuries of soccer players using a multidimensional approach based on GPS measurements and machine learning. In an evolutive scenario, where a soccer club starts collecting the data for the first time and updates the predictive model as the season goes by, our approach can detect around half of the injuries, allowing the soccer club to save 70% of a season’s economic costs related to injuries. The proposed approach can be a valuable support for coaches, helping the soccer club to reduce injury incidence, save money and increase team performance.