Objective: To prospectively describe the incidence, severity, and burden of injuries in the youth divisions of an Argentinian professional soccer club during a competitive season.
Methods: Two hundred and twelve male soccer academy players were grouped by age categories and maturity offset as pre-peak height velocity (PHV), circa-PHV and post-PHV. Injury characteristics were recorded as the International Olympic Committee suggests.
Results: A total of 235 time-loss injuries were sustained by 101 different players. The overall injury incidence rate was of 5.8 injuries per 1000 hours (h), with a training and match injury incidence rate of 4.9 and 9.7 injuries per 1000 h, respectively. The prevalence over the season was 47%. Most of the injuries (202) affected the lower limbs (86.6%) and most of them were classified as muscle/tendon injuries (n = 117, 49.8%). Hamstring structural injury was the diagnosis with the highest burden in both circa and post-PHV groups.
Conclusions: The incidence, prevalence, and injury burden reported in this study would add valuable information to Argentinians' youth soccer institutions. Post-PHV players had higher incidence, severity, and burden compared to circa-PHV. Structural/functional injuries to the muscle/tendon represented the highest burden for type of injuries (41.1 per 1000 h), suggesting a need for implementing preventive measures.
Keywords: Youth football; epidemiology; incidence; injury burden; maturation stage.