ArticleBiology of sport2021
Players' physical performance in LaLiga across the season: insights for competition continuation after COVID-19.
Article in Biology of sport, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The impact of crowd effects on home advantage of football matches during the COVID-19 pandemic-A systematic review.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Differences in Physical Match Performance and Injury Occurrence Before and After the COVID-19 Break in Professional European Soccer Leagues: A Systematic Review.Sports medicine - open · 2022Pooled it
- Evaluation of injury rates in soccer players before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2025Article
- A comparative study on the match performance of the Chinese Super League before and after COVID-19.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Effect of the phase of the season and contextual variables on match running performance in SpanishBiology of sport · 2024Article
- Blood flow restriction as a post-exercise recovery strategy: A systematic review of the current status of the literature.Biology of sport · 2024Review
- Application of arbitrary and individualized load quantification strategies over the weekly microcycle in professional soccer players.Biology of sport · 2024Article
- A Study on the Injury Rate of Spanish Competitive Athletes as a Consequence of the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Changes of physical match performance after the COVID-19 lockdown in professional soccer players according to their playing position.Biology of sport · 2022Article
- Injury Incidence Increases after COVID-19 Infection: A Case Study with a Male Professional Football Team.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Article
- Biological, Psychological, and Physical Performance Variations in Football Players during the COVID-19 Lockdown: A Prospective Cohort Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The Effect of the COVID-19 Lockdown on the Position-Specific Match Running Performance of Professional Football Players; Preliminary Observational Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Observational
- Influence of Football Match-Play on Isometric Knee Flexion Strength and Passive Hip Flexion Range of Motion in Football Referees and Assistant Referees.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on professional soccer players' body composition and physical fitness.Biology of sport · 2021Article
- Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on match activity and physical performance in professional football referees.Biology of sport · 2021Article
- Eccentric Hamstring Muscle Strength during Home Confinement Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and Football Competition Resumption in Professional Football Referees: A Prospective Observational Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Observational
- The Influence of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown on the Physical Performance of Professional Soccer Players: An Example of German and Polish Leagues.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Comparative Analysis of Soccer Performance Intensity of the Pre-Post-Lockdown COVID-19 in LaLiga™.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Running Patterns inFrontiers in physiology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, professional football players competing in LaLiga were confined at home for ~8 weeks and then they were allowed to train to prepare the first competitive match for 4 weeks. As the duration of summer break in the prior four seasons of LaLiga (from 2015-2016 to 2018-2019) was of similar length to the suspension of the championship due to COVID-19 (~12 weeks), we have analysed the running performance of teams competing in LaLiga in these four seasons to anticipate players' physical performance after the resumption of the competition. The analysis includes the average running distance per game for each of the 38 matchdays that compose LaLiga. One-way ANOVA revealed that there was a main effect of the matchday on total running distance per match (p = 0.001), and in the distance covered between 14.0 and 20.9 km/h (p < 0.001), between 21.0 and 23.9 km/h (p < 0.001) and at above 24.0 km/h (p < 0.001). Overall, the post-hoc analysis revealed that the running patterns progressively increased during the first 8-10 matchdays and then reached a plateau which was significantly different to matchday-1 (p < 0.05). This analysis reveals that, in the prior four competitive seasons of LaLiga, players' physical performance was lower at the beginning of the season and the teams needed approximately 8-10 matchdays to reach a steady state running performance. These data suggest that football players will progressively increase their performance across the 11 matchdays remaining to complete LaLiga.
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