Contents:
- Medical Video: Why Soccer Players Flop So Much
- How often is a soccer player injured?
- Hamstring injury to concussion: an injury most often experienced by soccer players
- Sprain
- ACL injury
- Hamstring injury
- Head injury
Medical Video: Why Soccer Players Flop So Much
As a sport full of physical contact, soccer is closely related to injury. Injuries experienced by footballers can even make him forced to miss a long time from the green field or even dim his career, such as hamstring injuries and ACL injuries.
How often is a soccer player injured?
From the data of an epidemiological study by Dvorak (2000), every 1000 minutes of a football match there are at least 10 to 35 players who are injured. Injuries experienced are most often caused by trauma, and the remainder (9-34%) is caused by excessive muscle use.
Most of the injuries experienced by soccer athletes involve the ankles and knee joint, as well as the muscles and ligaments of the thighs and calves. As many as 61-90% of injuries are related to the lower limbs. As for the position of the goalkeeper, injuries are more often experienced on the head, face, neck and upper body compared to the bottom.
The average professional soccer player plays 100 hours per year (varies from 50 hours to 500 hours per player). It is estimated that at least every player will experience 1 injury that inhibits him from competing every year. The high frequency of injury will certainly add to the expenses of a football club.
Hamstring injury to concussion: an injury most often experienced by soccer players
Taken from FIFA's page, there are 4 injuries that are most commonly experienced by soccer players.
Sprain
Foot sprains are one of the most common injuries on the soccer field. Foot sprains can occur on the outside of the ankle, when the position of the foot changes suddenly inward, or on the inside because the soles of the feet are pointing outward. Sprains when playing football can be caused by inevitable strikes between the player's body, a runaway position, or falling to land in the wrong position. Symptoms include swelling and pain in the ankle.
ACL injury
The ACL, aka the ligament of the anterior cruciate, is one of the ligaments retaining the knee joint. In soccer players, ACL injuries are usually caused by direct contact such as tackle from opposing players or because of non-contact causes such as fast movement and landing in the wrong position.
ACL injury is one of the most feared because the healing period can take 6 months, which causes a player to be absent for half the season. An example is Holger Badstuber, an ex-Bayern Munich footballer who suffered several ACL injuries during his career in the Bundesliga. The ACL injury he experienced dimmed his glowing career.
Hamstring injury
A hamstring injury is a twisting of a hamstring muscle, or a tear can occur. Hamstring itself is three muscle groups in the back of the thigh. This injury is one of the most common in the world of sports. This injury occurs usually because of kicking movements like in soccer players.
Hamstring injuries are often a terrible scourge because the recurrence rate is very high, and the time needed to heal is longer than the first hamstring injury. Just say Bastian Schweinsteiger, a German national team football player who is often met with a hamstring injury while competing throughout his career.
Head injury
Football is a unique sport. Even though it's called "soccer" ball, you still need a head to control and head the ball as a game tactic. However, footballers are not required to wear headgear helmets like an ice hockey player, so soccer players are more vulnerable to head injuries. Head injuries usually occur due to collisions, both against fellow players, goal posts, soil, or balls. Collisions that occur can result in concussion, injury to the eye, or fractures of the skull.
