Incidence and characteristics of COVID-19 in French professional football players during the 2020-2021 season.

Objectives: To describe the epidemiology of COVID-19 in French professional football players, and to compare the infection incidence with the general population across the first three waves.

Methods: During the 2020-2021 season, all professional football players (n = 1217) in the two primary French leagues underwent weekly testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection by nasopharyngeal PCR, in combination with rigorous infection control measures.

Results: Among all players, 572 (47%) tested positive at least once, with no COVID-19-related death or hospital admission.

A retrospective analysis of all-cause and cause-specific mortality rates in French male professional footballers.

This study retrospectively compared all-cause and cause-specific mortality in French male professional football players with data from France's national population. Altogether, 6114 individuals born in Metropolitan France or in one of its overseas territories who played at least one competitive match in France's professional football championships between January 1, 1968 and December 31, 2015, were identified and followed up for vital status obtained from a national reference database until December 31, 2015. Data on all-cause and cause-specific mortality were subsequently compared to the expected number of deaths for the national population after standardization for the year, age, and sex.

Injury rates and patterns in French male professional soccer clubs: a comparison between a regular season and a season in the Covid-19 pandemic.

This study investigated time-loss injury occurrence and patterns between the first season (2020/21, S2) completed during the Covid-19 pandemic (longer pre-season following cancellation of the 2019/20 season but shorter duration) and a regular season (2018/19, S1) in French Ligue 1 and 2 professional soccer clubs. Epidemiological data were prospectively recorded in a national injury database by each club's physician. In all clubs combined, the mean number of injuries per club was 31.