Comprehensive warm-up programme to prevent injuries in young female footballers: cluster randomised controlled trial

Torbjørn Soligard, Grethe Myklebust, Kathrin Steffen, Ingar Holme, Holly Silvers, Mario Bizzini, Astrid Junge, Jiri Dvorak, Roald Bahr, Thor Einar Andersen, Torbjørn Soligard, Grethe Myklebust, Kathrin Steffen, Ingar Holme, Holly Silvers, Mario Bizzini, Astrid Junge, Jiri Dvorak, Roald Bahr, Thor Einar Andersen

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effect of a comprehensive warm-up programme designed to reduce the risk of injuries in female youth football.

Design: Cluster randomised controlled trial with clubs as the unit of randomisation.

Setting: 125 football clubs from the south, east, and middle of Norway (65 clusters in the intervention group; 60 in the control group) followed for one league season (eight months).

Participants: 1892 female players aged 13-17 (1055 players in the intervention group; 837 players in the control group).

Intervention: A comprehensive warm-up programme to improve strength, awareness, and neuromuscular control during static and dynamic movements.

Main outcome measure: Injuries to the lower extremity (foot, ankle, lower leg, knee, thigh, groin, and hip).

Results: During one season, 264 players had relevant injuries: 121 players in the intervention group and 143 in the control group (rate ratio 0.71, 95% confidence interval 0.49 to 1.03). In the intervention group there was a significantly lower risk of injuries overall (0.68, 0.48 to 0.98), overuse injuries (0.47, 0.26 to 0.85), and severe injuries (0.55, 0.36 to 0.83).

Conclusion: Though the primary outcome of reduction in lower extremity injury did not reach significance, the risk of severe injuries, overuse injuries, and injuries overall was reduced. This indicates that a structured warm-up programme can prevent injuries in young female football players.

Trial registration: ISRCTN10306290.

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/4787169/bin/solt565895.f1.jpg
Fig 1 Two examples of strength exercises. Top: side plank exercise. Bottom: the “Nordic hamstring lower”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/4787169/bin/solt565895.f2.jpg
Fig 2 Example of running exercise illustrating key objectives of all running, jumping, cutting, and landing exercises: core stability and correct lower extremity alignment. Left: correct technique; right: incorrect technique with pelvic tilt and knee valgus alignment to right
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/4787169/bin/solt565895.f3.jpg
Fig 3 Flow of club clusters and players through study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/4787169/bin/solt565895.f4.jpg
Fig 4 Survival curves based on Cox regression for players with lower extremity injury and severe injury

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Source: PubMed

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