GPS tracking could be used to predict football injuries BEFORE they happen

It may seem like Premiership footballers spend half their time rolling around injured, but even small knocks can set a player back considerably, as well as their club.

Now sport scientists are using GPS technology to try and predict injuries before they happen, by looking at players' workloads on the pitch and in training.

Their initial findings suggest that those players who accumulated very high numbers of bursts of speed over a three-week period.


WORK RATE AND INJURY

By using GPS tracking technology, researchers monitored players' work rates on the training pitch, cross referencing the data against their injuries.

They found players who accumulate more bursts of speed over a short period are more likely to pick up injuries.

Increased loads on the body – generated from quick changes in direction, such as from dribbling with the ball – also had an impact on overall and non-contact injuries, such as strains and sprains.

A team from the University of Birmingham and Southampton Football Club took a high tech approach to analysing the performance of youth team players, in order to study the link between training activity and rates of injury.

Players wore GPS trackers and accelerometers which monitored their speed, distance travelled and total forces experienced by their bodies on the pitch.

This data was cross referenced against any recorded injuries which caused players to miss training activity - classed as mild, moderate and severe.


Analysis showed that those players who racked up the most short bursts of speed were most likely to succumb to overall and non-contact injuries, such as strains and sprains.

The total distance covered also had a significant impact, as did increased loads on the body – generated from quick changes in direction.


According to the researchers, training sessions should be organised so that distance covered at high speed and the total forces experienced are spread across a four-week period.

They explain that breaking up workloads can enable players to train harder and could even lead to them becoming more resilient to injury.

'Our research has huge practical and scientific application,' said Laura Bowen, a data scientist at Southampton FC and PhD sport science researcher at the University of Birmingham.


'It expands on a recent body of literature in rugby league and cricket which has proposed that the prescription of workloads may be more indicative of injury than the load itself.'

The findings are published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Ms Bowen added: 'The results of our study demonstrate this, with high, excessive workloads associated with the greatest injury risk.

'However, when the players were exposed to these high loads progressively, over a period of time, the risk of injury reduced significantly.

PREMIER LEAGUE INJURIES 2015/16 SEASON Team Total injuries 1Manchester City51 2Liverpool413Manchester United404Sunderland395Stoke37

'Ultimately, players who safely train harder, may develop a greater resilience and tolerance for the intensity and fatigue of competition by increasing their physical capacities.'

At the end of the last football season, sixth place Southampton were in the bottom half of the table in terms of injuries (21 total), with champions Leicester accumulating even fewer injuries (15).

Data fromPhysioRoom.com showed that Manchester City accumulated the most injuries, with a total of 51 – a hard won battle for their fourth place spot.

The researchers conclude that the findings could form initial guidelines for youth football, but are cautious about extending to top flight teams in other sports.

Dr François-Xavier Li, from Birmingham's School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, said: 'These findings provide initial guidelines for optimal workloads to reduce the occurrence of injury in elite youth football, but we should be cautious about directly applying this work to different teams and sports due to the specific nature of football's physical demands.'
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