Video Analysis of Match Injury Within Elite Football
Within all levels of sport there is a need for better understanding of the context around injuries sustained in competition. Musculotendinous injuries, and in particular hamstring strain injuries, have both a high incidence and reoccurrence rate in sporting populations, and the incidence has increased over the last twenty years. Injuries creates time loss from sport and consequential health impacts, increased burden on the health system, along with potential economic costs related to time away from work. Current approaches both for injury management and prevention are generally based around improving muscle strength to improve tissue tolerance. This approach does not account for the complexity of why that injury occurred, to that individual athlete, at that time.
Using video analysis and notation the aim of this project is to identify if there are common performance, temporal, environmental, and contextual factors occurring at time of musculotendinous injury within elite football (e.g., during accelerations, time-period within game, weather conditions etc). By developing more holistically informed models of injury causation, it may be possible to develop a more tailored approach to injury risk reduction and rehabilitation.
This project was awarded £2500 as part of the internal Research Capacity fund at the University of Salford.
Team
Michael Carolan