Why the study?
Does playing on third-generation artificial turf increase injury incidence compared to natural grass in male elite professional soccer players?
Does playing on third-generation artificial turf increase injury incidence compared to natural grass in male elite professional soccer players?
Playing on third-generation artificial turf does not significantly increase the risk of injury compared to natural grass in elite professional soccer players.
Similar injury rates on artificial turf and grass are hypothesis-generating; larger prospective studies needed before practice change.
Our hypothesis is that there are no difference in the injury incidence on artificial turf and natural grass. During the 2011/2012 season, we recorded injuries which occurred to two Italian stadiums equipped with third-generation artificial turf during 36 games (391 players). Data were compared with the injuries which occurred in the same season in two stadiums equipped with natural grass (372 players). We recorded 43 injuries during the playing time (16.7 per 1000 h). About 23 (18.1 per 1000 h) injuries occurred on artificial turf, while 20 (15.2 per 1000 h) on the natural grass with no statistical differences P > 0.05. We recorded 10 (7.87 per 1000 h) contact and 13 (10.23 per 1000 h) non-contact injuries on artificial turf, while 5 (3.8 per 1000 h) contact and 15 (11.4 per 1000 h) non-contact injuries on natural grass P > 0.05. The overall relative risk was 1.15; 95% CI: 0.64-2.07). Our study demonstrates a substantial equivalence in injury risk on natural grass and artificial turf in elite professional soccer athletes during official matches.
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Lanzetti et al. (2016) studied this question.
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