Importance of Peak Height Velocity Timing in Terms of Injuries in Talented Soccer Players

The purpose of this study was to identify differences in traumatic and overuse injury incidence between talented soccer players who differ in the timing of their adolescent growth spurt. 26 soccer players (mean age 11.9 +/- 0.84 years) were followed longitudinally for 3 years around Peak Height Velocity, calculated according to the Maturity Offset Protocol. The group was divided into an earlier and later maturing group by median split. Injuries were registered following the FIFA consensus statement. Mann-Whitney tests showed that later maturing players had a significantly higher overuse injury incidence than their earlier maturing counterparts both in the year before Peak Height Velocity (3.53 vs. 0.49 overuse injuries/1 000 h of exposure, U = 49.50, z = -2.049, p <0.05) and the year of Peak Height Velocity (3.97 vs. 1.56 overuse injuries/1 000 h of exposure, U = 50.5, z = -1.796, p