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122Medical reportMEDICAL REPORTAuthor: Prof. Jiří DvořákAt the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, theFIFA Chief Medical Officer Prof. Jiří Dvořák,together with FIFA Medical Officers Dr AlfredMüller and Prof. Efraim Kramer, supervisedthe medical services for the event at theheadquarters in Rio de Janeiro. The LOC’smedical team had prepared the delivery ofmedical services.Medical encounters during matchesThroughout the 64 matches, 6,230 medicalencounters were recorded, with an averageof 97 encounters per match. This relates to atotal of 3.5 million spectators. The number ofmedical encounters was within the expectedlimits.Injury-recording studySince 1998, team doctors have been askedto report all injuries incurred by their playersduring each match. The standardised injuryrecording forms developed by the FIFAMedical Assessment and Research Centre(F-MARC) were completed and returned tothe FIFA Medical Officer. Dr Astrid Junge,Head of Research at F-MARC, analysed thedata.The overall injury rate was 1.7 injuries permatch. Eight per cent of injuries caused anabsence from training or matches for morethan four weeks, and 35% of contact-relatedinjuries were caused by foul play. Comparingthe injury statistics from 2002 (2.7 injuries/match) to this year’s edition (1.7 injuries/match), injuries have been reduced byapproximately 40% at the FIFA World Cup.Cooling/drinks break procedureFor the first time in the history of the FIFAWorld Cup, FIFA allowed cooling breaksduring matches where threshold limitvalues for heat stress were exceeded. TheFIFA Venue Medical Officers at each venuetook Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT)measurements prior to kick-off and thenmonitored their development. When thetemperature exceeded 32 degrees, a coolingbreak was recommended to the FIFA GeneralCoordinator. The implementation of thebreak was at the discretion of the referee.Only one cooling break was taken, duringthe Netherlands v. Mexico match in Fortaleza(WBGT 32°).Anti-dopingOut-of-competition doping controlAt the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013and the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, FIFA usedbiological profiling as a possible new strategyin the fight against doping. At the 2014 FIFAWorld Cup, all players of all teams were tested(blood and urine) prior to the competitionfor the purpose of biological profiling, androutine anti-doping tests were carried outduring the competition. The biological profilehas two components: the haematologicalparameters (blood) and the steroid profile3.02.72.52.42.32.02.01.51.71.51.31.71.01.00.50.01998France2002Korea/Japan2006Germany2010South Africa2014BrazilFig. 1:Average number ofinjuries per matchblue = all injuriesgrey = time-loss injuries