Background

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.

Objective

The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effects of fixture congestion on injuries during professional soccer.

Methods

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).

Results

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.

Conclusion

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.

中文翻译：

---

赛程拥塞对职业男子足球损伤的影响：系统评价

背景

职业足球队通常需要在比赛之间进行 ≤ 4 天的恢复。由于拥挤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，还没有发表关于比赛拥堵对职业男子足球比赛中受伤的影响的系统评价。

客观的

本系统评价的目的是评估赛程拥塞对职业足球比赛中受伤的影响。

方法

在开放科学框架 (https://osf.io/86m25/) 上进行预注册并符合系统评价和元分析 (PRISMA) 指南的首选报告项目后，对四个电子数据库（PubMed、Scopus、 SPORTDiscus 和 Web of Science）由独立研究人员从一开始到 2022 年 2 月进行。如果文章是用英语撰写的原创文章并且包含相关的时间损失数据（导致无法进行训练和/或比赛的伤害），则文章将被包括在内。播放）对于男性职业足球运动员关于赛程拥挤的时期（至少两场比赛且恢复时间≤ 4 天）。

结果

共有八篇文章被纳入审查。五项研究发现，拥挤的赛程安排会使球员在比赛中受伤的几率增加，尽管在拥挤的时期下场时间通常较短。两项研究发现，在拥挤时期，训练和总体伤害发生率更高，而另一项研究发现，在拥挤时期，训练伤害发生率较低。

结论

总的来说，在赛程拥挤的时期，受伤风险会增加；但是，裁员时间通常较短。目前的研究结果对从业者在训练和比赛时间表的管理、周期化、监测和设计方面具有重要意义。