Abstract
Introduction and Objectives:
The injury rate in professional men's soccer match is around 8.1/1000 hours of exposure, almost 10 times higher than the rate in training session approximately in 3.7/1000 hours of exposure. Sixty-five percent of injuries causing time loss and impairing athlete performance. Therefore, the better understanding of professional soccer athletes’ management is essential in order to formulate comprehensive treatment of injuries and illnesses. The purpose of this research is to describe injury, illness, and referral pattern in Indonesian football clubs.
Material and Methods:
This descriptive study was conducted on injury and illness data from two Indonesian Football Clubs through 2018-2023. Many incidences, referral to another specialist, and collaboration care has been evaluated to describe the injury and illness characteristic. This study excluded Covid-19 pandemic data.
Results:
There were 159 cases over five years of data collection on injuries and illnesses from two Indonesian Football Clubs (Club X: 2018-2022, Club Y: 2022-2023). From the data, 149 players were registered in the Indonesian League 1 for 5 seasons. The number of injury case recorded was 137 cases with a ratio of 0.91 injured cases per number of players while the ratio of illnesses was 0.14 per number of players (n = 22). The characteristics case of injuries was divided into acute injuries (n = 105) and overuse injuries (n = 32). The referral process was carried out in 44% of the total case of injuries (n=61) and 18% of illnesses (n=4), with the most specialists receiving referrals were orthopaedics (n=28), followed by radiologist (n=26), emergency department (n=4), ophthalmology (n=3) and anaesthesia, plastic surgery, internal medicine, and medical rehabilitation. Monitoring and evaluation of referral cases were carried out by club doctors directly (n = 45) or in outpatient care by the specialist (n = 20)
Conclusions:
Management of injuries and illnesses in football clubs involved several medical specialties therefore comprehensive teamwork is mandatory for effective care. Most referral cases can be evaluated directly by the team doctor or additionally by medical doctor specialist.