Epidemiologic analysis of injuries occurred during the 15th Brazilian Indoor Soccer (Futsal) Sub20 Team Selection Championship

Introduction: Several authors have investigated the incidence of injuries occurred in the outdoor soccer game. However, there are only few works analyzing injuries occurred in the indoor soccer game (futsal). The purpose of this study was to analyze the incidence, circumstances, and characteristics of injuries recorded in the indoor soccer during the 15th Brazilian Sub20 Futsal Championship. Methods: Physiotherapists and doctors of every team selection participating in the 15th Brazilian Sub20 Futsal Championship answered a questionnaire with the purpose to investigate the occurrence of injuries during the games. The answering rate was 100%. Results: 32 total injuries were recorded along 23 games, with a 1.39 injury incidence per game, or 208.6 injuries per 1,000/game. Approximately 1 to 3 injuries per game resulted in removal of players from gaming or training. Contact injuries were predominant in 65.62% (21 out of 32 injuries), and most of these injuries did not result in removal of the players. Conclusions: The present study observed that the injury incidence during the 15th Brazilian Sub20 Futsal Championship was similar to the incidence during the Indoor Soccer tournaments, but higher than those found in the outdoor soccer tournaments, characterizing the specificity of the sports. Nevertheless, circumstances and characteristics are similar among them, mainly due to the similar demand of the sports.