Body composition and injury risk
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The association of body composition with non-contact injury and re-injury in professional male and female football players from and English Premier League club
IRAS ID
327214
Contact name
Alan McCall
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Arsenal Football Club
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 1 months, 31 days
Research summary
Body composition is one of the most important measures for football teams to assess in players, with tracking of individual players body composition necessary to make well-informed decisions about each personal players health and performance. Excess fat-mass can negatively affect players health and performance capabilities and periods where players may be out injured opens them up to susceptibility of disuse, atrophy and deconditioning. The role of body composition is suggested to be of potential importance therefore as a risk factor for injury and/or re-injury. However a recent Expert Group Statement by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) highlighted that research to understand the precise role of body composition in the health of performance is lacking and urgently requires attention.
There are various methods to measure body composition, however the accepted gold standard in professional teams sports (including association football) is DEXA; ‘Dual X-Ray Absorptiometry’ and recommended by UEFA, especially given the precision errors of between 1 to 4.5% using this method.
The aim of this research project is to deepen the knowledge of body composition in professional football by investigating the association of body composition measures with non-contact injury and re-injury in professional male and female football players.
This study represents an ‘exploratory prognostic study’ using an association design where we will attempt to identify candidate prognostic factor(s) of body composition with injury in professional footballers. Both male and female professional football players competing in an English Premier League club will be eligible and invited to participate. All DEXA scans will be performed on site at the football clubs training ground. The study will run from 1st May 2023 until May 31st May 2026. Specifically, players will be scanned using DEXA on average 5 times per season i.e. July to June corresponds to a typical football calendar season.
REC name
North East - Tyne & Wear South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/NE/0084
Date of REC Opinion
3 May 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion