The influence of physiotherapy to the period of time for return to the sportive activity of the football players, who experienced injuries

Evidently, football is one of the most wide-spread sport activities in the world. There are approximately 200 million players registered in FIFA (International Federation of Football Association) in 186 countries. Every year the number of football players increases, thus, the number of injuries among football players grows accordingly. Sport injuries are the challenge of today: injured player is in need for rehabilitation and physiotherapy applied in time might help for the individual to recover physical functions, get back to active trainings, and live usual life. Objective of the study was to determine the type of injuries of football players (men and women), their cause, frequency and impact of physiotherapy treatment. Methodology. One football team of men and one team of women were analysed, each consisting of 25 players. Physiotherapy was applied to sportsmen, who experienced knee and shin foot joint injuries; in addition, all the individuals had chirurgical treatment. During the study, all the sportsmen completed a physiotherapy program of 4-5 procedures per week, lasting for approximately 30 minutes. During this survey the period of time after which these sportsmen returned to their sportive activity was observed, as well as alteration of amplitude of shin foot joint and knee joint between the two groups: one group that physiotherapy was applied to and the other one that it was not applied to. Conclusion. The results of the study showed, that the most frequent injury among men and women is strain. It was also concluded, that leg is the most frequently injured part of the body. It was proved with significance (p<0,05) that cause of injuries of both, men and women, is contact with other players. Most of the injuries happen either during the first and second year when going in for sports, or when sportsmen train longer than nine years. The least safe position in football game is forward. Applied physiotherapy program significantly (p<0,05) shortened the recovery time up to 14 weeks. Also physiotherapy reliaby (p