Summary

ACL in professional young soccer player

Abstract

Purpose

to evaluate the incidence of ACL injuries in male players from professional soccer clubs for two consecutive seasons (2018-2019) with a sub-analysis based on age category: under-13 (U-13), under-15 (U-15), under-17 (U-17), and under-20 (U-20) years.

Methods

A total of 17,108 young male soccer players were retrospectively reviewed from sixty-three professional clubs in the four highest Brazilian soccer divisions. Data regarding the number of athletes and the number of ACL injuries confirmed by MRI exams in the 2018 and 2019 seasons were collected according to age category. Incidence rates of ACL injury were compared according to season, age category (under-13; under-15; under 17; and under-20), demographic region, and club division.

Results

Clubs from all regions of Brazil participated in the study. A total of 336 primary ACL injuries were diagnosed over the two seasons (8,167 athletes during the 2018 season and in 8,941 athletes during the 2019 season) among all athletes, which corresponds to 1.96 % of the included athletes over that time period. There were 11 cases (0.26%) in the under-13, 53 cases (1.26%) in under-15, 107 cases (2.49%) in the under-17, and 165 cases (3.77%) in the under-20 age category. There was a higher incidence rates of ACL tears in the older age groups (p < .001).

Conclusion

A total of 336 ACL injuries were identified in 17,108 youth soccer players from 63 professional clubs with an overall incidence of 1.8% over 2 seasons of competition. ACL injury rate ranged from 0.26 to 3.77 in soccer players and was higher along with age category and higher in the higher categories. Therefore, prevention programs for ACL injury should be directed to the older age group of youth soccer players