The relationship between individual player exercise load and sleep to injury in semi-professional soccer players : A case study

The ability for coaches and fitness staff to monitor and analyse training programs has become increasingly important in pursuit of maximising player performance whilst minimising any negative consequences such as injury. The aim for each individual training session is to induce a stimulus that can provide a positive adaptation, and hence improve performance (12). Limiting injuries is crucial for team success, with lower injury burden and higher match availability both associated with higher league ranking (8). However, there is a narrow margin between over or under training an athlete, therefore the need to monitor training load is critical (3). Currently several researchers have found a link between training load and injury, each in various team sports (1, 6, 14). The typical relationship found has been linked to higher training loads resulting in greater injury occurrence. However, caution must be taken when looking to minimise injury risk simply by reducing training load. Gamble (7) proposed that the training load-injury risk should be viewed as a U-curve relationship (Figure 1, below), with both high and low training loads proposed to influence injury risk. This is hypothesised due to the fact athletes may be poorly conditioned if training load is too low or the excessive build-up of microtrauma from over training both result in an increased injury risk