ORIGINAL ARTICLE  SPORT INJURIES AND REHABILITATION 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2022 March;62(3):356-60

DOI: 10.23736/S0022-4707.21.12903-2

Copyright © 2021 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the epidemiology of soccer muscle injuries in Italian Serie A professional football players

Nicola MAROTTA ¹, Alessandro de SIRE ¹ ✉, Alessandra GIMIGLIANO ², Andrea DEMECO ¹, Lucrezia MOGGIO ¹, Andrea VESCIO ³, Teresa IONA ⁴, Antonio AMMENDOLIA ¹

¹ Unit of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, The Magna Græcia University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy; ² ASST Fatebenefratelli-Sacco, Milan, Italy; ³ Section of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Department of General Surgery and Medical Surgical Specialties, University Hospital Policlinico Vittorio Emanuele, University of Catania, Catania, Italy; ⁴ Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, The Magna Græcia University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence that COVID-19 lockdown had on the epidemiology of soccer musculoskeletal injuries during 2019/2020 Italian First Football League Serie A in professional football players.
METHODS: In this retrospective study we analyzed records from media-based platform (Trasfermarkt, https://www.transfermarkt.com), describing the epidemiology of muscle injuries before and after the first COVID-19 lockdown phases in Italian professional football players. We also classified the severity of the injury as the number of missing days from participation.
RESULTS: We assessed a lower prevalence of post-lockdown injuries, albeit showing a similar injury rate at 1000 game-hours (prelockdown: 16.9 [13.0-20.7], post-lockdown: 15.5 [9.9-21.1]; RR=0.92 [0.46-1.8]). All risk ratios for injury rate were not significantly different (P>0.05) between pre- and post-lockdown.
CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of muscle injuries has not significantly changed after the first COVID-19 lockdown in Italian professional soccer players. Recognizing injury rates might be crucial for physician to evaluate adequate preventive measures.

KEY WORDS: COVID-19; Muscles; Wounds and injuries; Football; Return to sport