ArticleJournal of experimental orthopaedics2026
The association between GPS-derived external workload metrics and soleus muscle injuries in professional football (soccer) players.
Article in Journal of experimental orthopaedics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the association between external GPS workload metrics and soleus muscle injuries (SMI) in elite professional football. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted across seven consecutive seasons (2017/2018-2023/2024) in a single Italian Serie A first-team squad. One hundred and sixty player-season observations were included (25.4 ± 3.2 years; goalkeepers excluded), with 4704 match-hours and 31,686 training-hours recorded. SMIs were defined as time-loss soleus muscle complaints (excluding contact injuries) diagnosed by the club medical staff in accordance with FIFA consensus definitions and classified as structural or non-structural. External loads were quantified using 50 Hz GPS (Stats Perform) and included total distance, high-intensity distance (≥16 km·h Results: Twenty-nine SMIs (52% were nonstructural) occurred in 17 players. Injured players were older than noninjured players (29.2 ± 3.9 vs. 25.0 ± 3.2 years; Conclusion: SMIs imposed a substantial burden in elite football and were not preceded by acute workload spikes relative to players' own control periods. Findings suggest SMIs may occur within a context of sustained high training volumes, with modest elevations in short-term deceleration exposure and reduced longer-term sprint distance observed prior to injury. Level of Evidence: Level III.
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