Injuries Following COVID-19 Infection in Academy-level Male Youth Soccer Players

BACKGROUND: Injury epidemiology data are key to injury prevention strategy development. Most such data surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic compare team injury data during the pandemic to that before the pandemic; few investigate injuries by infection status and even less involve academy-level organizations. We hypothesized that in male youth developmental academy-level soccer players, the rate of injury would be higher following COVID-19 infection than in the uninfected. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study involving 141 male youth athletes from a single midwestern US developmental soccer academy during the spring 2022 soccer season. Injury data was gathered prospectively and analyzed retrospectively. Injury rate (incidence per 1000 playing hours), type, location, severity, mechanism, and mode of play were compared between COVID-19-positive and -negative athletes. RESULTS: Thirty-four (24.11%) of 141 athletes tested positive for COVID-19. Of those 34, 20 (58.8%) sustained at least 1 injury, totaling 30 injuries. Of the 107 (75.89%) uninfected athletes, 30 (28.04%) sustained at least 1 injury, totaling 37 injuries. COVID-19-positive athletes sustained injuries at higher rates (7.10, 95% CI: 4.79-10.14) than uninfected athletes (2.71, 95% CI: 1.91-3.74), with an infected to uninfected adjusted injury rate ratio of 2.08 (95% CI: 1.20-3.59, P =0.008). COVID-19 positive players were 2.78 times more likely to sustain an injury following their infection than uninfected players (95% CI: 1.14-6.96, P =0.026). There were no significant differences in injury type ( P =0.515), location ( P =0.319), severity ( P =0.679), mechanism ( P =0.225), or mode of play ( P =0.557) between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Among academy-level youth soccer athletes, injury rate increased significantly after COVID-19 infection; injury patterns were similar. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II - Retrospective cohort study.