2006 OFC U-20 Women's Championship Toleafoa JS Blatter Football

Table 1. Injury statistics according to type, location, playing position and time of game.
Total After Groups stage
Ankle 18 11
Knee 8 6
Quad 4 4
Head, face or neck 3 3
Toe 2 2
Shin 2 2
Shoulder 2 1
Torso 3 1
Elbow 1 1
1 st quarter 8 7
2 nd quarter 15 9
3 rd quarter 5 5
4 th quarter 15 10
Contusion 23 17
Strain 9 6
Sprain 10 6
Laceration 1 2
Goalkeeper 6 3
Defender 13 9
Midfield 11 7
Forward 10 9
Unknown 3 3
There were more injuries to outfield players than to goalkeepers but as goalkeepers made up 11% of the total number of players
present, their actual rate of injury was the highest. At this level of competition, further analysis of injury incidence by playing
position isn’t reliable as players often changed position, both within and between games, but results are reported for
completeness.
Most injuries (79%) were to the lower extremities which is similar to the incidence seen in other football tournaments and female
national leagues (Faude et al. 2005). Recurrent ankle sprains and strains are of particular concern and may reflect inherent
weakness, failure to manage a previous injury effectively or poor quality training facilities. These pre-disposing factors should be
investigated further to reduce injury occurrence in future games/tournaments.
The most common type of injury was a bruise or contusion caused by contact with another player or the ground. No concussions,
fractures or dislocations were reported. Injury surveillance is an important tool to highlight issues and guide intervention strategies.
2. Injury management
The management of injured players is important and appropriate action should
always be taken to ensure that player welfare is monitored.
Only 4 of the 8 teams had some form of medical personnel within their support staff.
Whilst icing of injuries was observed, this was generally not for long enough and/or
was not repeated over the recommended time frame (15 minutes, every 2 hours, for
48 hours).
Strapping was widely used, for treatment rather than prevention. Three players were
taken to hospital for further examination with one being diagnosed with a minor
ankle injury. The other two were diagnosed with significant knee ligament damage,
requiring rest for at least 7 days.
Failure to rest injured players was common throughout the tournament with an opportunity for minor injuries to become more
serious, increasing the ultimate recovery time and limiting performance and or players not being available layer in the tournament.
Immediate injury management was provided by a combination of team personnel (some qualified, some not) and the Red Cross.
Event Report and Statistics– 2006 OFC U-20 Women’s Championship – Samoa
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