Key result
Soccer playing position shows mixed injury risks, though goalkeepers consistently sustain fewer injuries than outfielders.
Why the study?
The role of player position on general injury risk in male soccer players is not well understood despite extensive injury surveillance in soccer.
Does playing position affect general injury risk in male soccer players?
Systematic Review (n=11)
Does playing position affect general injury risk in male soccer players?
There is no clear agreement on whether playing position affects general injury risk in male soccer, though goalkeepers appear to be at lower risk than outfield players.
Goalkeepers' lower injury rates support position-tailored monitoring in male soccer; confirms this pattern while leaving outfield associations unresolved.
Soccer (football) is a complex contact sport with a substantial risk of injury. As injury surveillance is the first step of the injury prevention paradigm, soccer epidemiology is well reported in the existing literature, but less is known about the actual role of player position on the general injury risk. The goal of this study is to present the existing evidence regarding the influence of player's position on general injury risk in male soccer. A systematic review of the Medline database was carried out. Only English written studies on male soccer and citing playing position as a possible determinant of injury risk were included. One hundred and two full texts were evaluated for eligibility, and 11 studies were selected for the qualitative synthesis. Of the 11 studies included in the systematic review, 5 didn't find any significant correlation with between player's position and general injury risk, while the remaining 6 studies found player's position to be correlated with injury risk, with mixed findings depending on each study. The most consistent finding was a tendency for goalkeepers (GKs) to sustain less injuries compared to outfield players. When considering only the studies reporting just the match injury risk, forwards seemed to be at higher risk, even if there wasn't a complete agreement. Few studies have evaluated a possible effect of playing position on general injury risk in male soccer. There is no agreement if weather or not different playing positions are associated to a higher injury risk. GKs seem to be at lower risk of injury when compared to outfield players.
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Mandelbaum et al. (2018) conducted a systematic review in Injury risk in soccer (n=11). Playing position vs. Other playing positions was evaluated on General injury risk. Playing position showed mixed correlations with injury risk in male soccer, though goalkeepers consistently sustained fewer injuries than outfield players.
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