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RESEARCH: Torbjørn Soligard, Grethe Myklebust, Kathrin Steffen, Ingar Holme, Holly Silvers, Mario Bizzini, Astrid Junge, Jiri Dvorak, Roald Bahr, and Thor Einar Andersen Comprehensive warm-up programme to prevent injuries in young female footballers: cluster randomised controlled trial BMJ 2008; 337: a2469 [Abstract] [Full text]

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Are injuries commoner in the first half?

Paul A Hepple   (11 January 2009)

Timing of injuries during football matches

Nigel C Smeeton   (28 April 2009)

Are injuries commoner in the first half? 11 January 2009
Paul A Hepple, GP Muirhouse Medical Group, Edinburgh EH4 4PL Send response to journal: Re: Are injuries commoner in the first half?	I remain sceptical that warm-up programmes reduce injuries in football matches. Biological plausibility for this hypothesis should lead us to expect injuries will be commoner in the first 10 to 20 minutes of a football match. I wonder if any one is aware of research demonstrating this temporal relationship? However I accept there will be confounding factors affecting likelihood of injuries. Competing interests: None declared
Timing of injuries during football matches 28 April 2009
Nigel C Smeeton, Lecturer in Medical Statistics King's College London SE1 3QD Send response to journal: Re: Timing of injuries during football matches	The following paper (and the references) regarding the timing of injuries during football matches might be of interest: Takahashi M, Fukuoka S, Nagano A. Evaluation of team-doctor actions during football games in Japanese professional football. J Sci Med Sport (2008), doi: 10.1016/j.jsams.2008.04.006 From these findings, the first 15 minutes and the last 30 minutes of normal time are the most risky. Serious injury becomes more likely towards the end of the match. Competing interests: None declared