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Latest Research
Research Details
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| Research Title: |
Is there a relationship between ground and climatic conditions and injuries in football? |
| Type of Research: |
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| Category: |
Environment
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| Keywords: |
Ankle injury
Football
Injury Prevention
Knee Injury
Ground conditions, Climatic conditions, Environmental conditions, Football, Turf, Knee injuries
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| Author(s): |
John Orchard |
| Author(s) Bio Box: |
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| Release Date: |
15 May 2008 |
| Research Summary/Text: |
Numerous studies of injury in various form of football – soccer, rugby union, rugby league, American football, Australian football and Gaelic football – indicate there may be a relationship between playing conditions and incidence of injury, particularly to the lower limb. The review investigates risk factors for football injuries including football boot type, early-season and dry-season bias, different playing surface types, and ground hardness and its relationship with shoe-surface traction.
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| Research Objectives: |
The objective of this review is to examine the relationship between playing conditions (weather and ground conditions) and football injury, to determine the extent to which injury may be potentially reduced by making changes to the playing surface.
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| Research Outcomes: |
The review found many studies suggesting that increased surface hardness, and particularly increased shoe-surface traction, may be risk factors for non-contact lower limb injuries in football. However, very few studies have focussed specifically on this issue and controlled adequately for confounding factors (eg. heat and sunshine, rainfall or watering, soil moisture content, water evaporation, grass root density, length of boot cleats).
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| Research Implications: |
Weather and other environmental factors can affect ground hardness and/or shoe-surface traction on natural grass football fields, leading to possible changes in the risk of injury. Measures to reduce shoe-surface traction can reduce the risk of injury but may be at the expense of field and player performance.
Measures to reduce shoe-surface traction include ground watering and softening, play during winter months, use of natural grasses such as perennial ryegrass and use of boots with shorter cleats. The introduction of regulation of types of football boots, while unlikely to ever succeed at elite level of play, may be worth consideration at amateur or junior levels.
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| Availability of Full Research Paper: |
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