What does sports injury research tell us?

Editorial: Given that the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport has a strong focus on sports injury I want to highlight some of the papers we have recently published in this area. We have published epidemiological studies, injury prevention studies, and those that look specifically at injury risk factors. For example, Mitchell et al investigated sports injury in relation to routine hospital data collection and demonstrated the gross underestimation of the size of the sports injury phenomenon given that the majority of sports injuries are not seen in that setting. Gianotti et al. analysed anterior cruciate ligament injury data from a New Zealand national injury database and discussed the short-term disability encountered from such injuries. In a further example, the paper by Schrier et al.3 highlighted the discordance between the way in which injuries are reported between youth athletes, their parents and their coaches. This highlights the importance of exploring the best method to adopt when capturing injury data