Overuse Injuries in Youth Football Players

OBJECTIVES: Youth football players encounter many injuries especially during the school period when they are trying to make scool and football together. Due to consistent team selection in competetion, school matches, academy leaque matches and age group national team matches, as a result of high intensity training at a young age they are extremely overloaded. METHODS: 145 football players of 13-19 age group playing in the academy leaque of Bursaspor have been observed for 10 months (Augost 2013-May 2014) ,injuries caused by overuse and that require at least 2 days break from sports activities. RESULTS: Were determined on 45 football players while lower extremities upper group (hamstring, quadriceps)muscles constitued the majority of the injuries; In the adductor region were also seen often. The most striking finding is epiphyses avulsion fractures on the 3 players. CONCLUSION: There are many risk factors causing injuries releated to overuse in youth athletes.Such as previous injuries,anatomic malalignment,extreme flexibility,loss of bone mineral density,overload to physes,high intensity training,when rest is not adequate, and not appropriate recovery.Limitation of sports specific repetatif movements(eg,pitching limits);scheduled rest periods and recovery time;such modifications to be individualized based upon the sport and the athlete's age,growt rate,readiness;optimal preparation of the preseason conditioning program;well neuromusculer training before workout;exact monitoring of the training and determination of the occasions on which injuries occur are important in preventing such injuries.