Department of Sport and Physical Activity, Edge Hill University, St. Helens Road, Ormskirk, Lancashire, L39 4QP, UK.
Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, M15 6BH, UK.
Sports Med. 2023 Mar;53(3):667-685. doi: 10.1007/s40279-022-01799-5. Epub 2022 Dec 17.
Professional soccer teams are often required to compete with ≤ 4 days recovery between matches. Since congested schedules reduce recovery time between matches, players are possibly at an increased injury risk. To date, there are no published systematic reviews on the impact of match congestion on injuries during professional male soccer.
The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effects of fixture congestion on injuries during professional soccer.
Following pre-registration on the Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/86m25/ ) and conforming with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, systematic searches of four electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science) were conducted by independent researchers from inception until February 2022. Articles were included if they were original articles written in English and contained relevant time-loss injury data (injury that results in unavailability for training and/or match-play) for male professional soccer players regarding periods of fixture congestion (a minimum of two matches with ≤ 4 days recovery).
A total of eight articles were included in the review. Five studies identified that congested fixture schedules expose players to increased match injury incidence, although layoff duration was typically lower during congested periods. Two studies identified that training and overall injury incidence were higher during congested periods, with another study identifying a lower training injury incidence during congested periods.
Injury risk is, overall, increased during fixture-congested periods; however, the layoff duration is typically shorter. The current findings have implications for practitioners regarding the management, periodisation, monitoring, and design of training and competition schedules.
职业足球队经常需要在 4 天以内的恢复时间内连续比赛。由于密集的赛程减少了比赛之间的恢复时间，球员受伤的风险可能会增加。迄今为止，还没有关于比赛密集度对职业男性足球运动员受伤影响的系统评价。
本系统评价的目的是评估赛程密集度对职业足球运动员受伤的影响。
在开放科学框架（https://osf.io/86m25/）上进行预先注册，并符合系统评价和荟萃分析的首选报告项目（PRISMA）指南，独立研究人员对四个电子数据库（PubMed、Scopus、SPORTDiscus 和 Web of Science）进行了系统搜索，检索时间从开始到 2022 年 2 月。如果文章是用英文撰写的原始文章，并包含关于赛程密集（至少有两场比赛的恢复时间≤4 天）期间男性职业足球运动员的伤停时间损失（导致无法训练和/或参加比赛的伤病）的相关数据，则将其纳入研究。
共纳入 8 篇文章进行综述。有 5 项研究表明，密集的赛程安排使球员更容易发生比赛受伤，尽管密集时期的伤停时间通常较短。有两项研究表明，密集时期的训练和总受伤发生率较高，另一项研究表明密集时期的训练受伤发生率较低。
总体而言，在赛程密集期间受伤风险增加；然而，伤停时间通常较短。目前的研究结果对从业人员在管理、分期、监测和设计训练和比赛日程方面具有重要意义。
