Epidemiological Study on Professional Football Injuries During the 2011 Copa America, Argentina.

Objective: Develop an epidemiological study of injuries occurred among male professional football players during the Copa America 2011, held in Argentina.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of injuries sustained during the 43rd edition of the Copa America football in Argentina, in 2011. The lesions were evaluated by the medical department of the selections and reported to the CONMEBOL. The data were compiled and reported in accordance with rules established by the FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre (F-MARC) in 2005.

Results: There was a higher prevalence of lesions in the lower limbs. Thighs and knees were the most affected segments. The most frequent diagnoses were muscle injuries. The injuries were mostly minor degrees of severity and there was little difference in the prevalence of lesions according to the stages of the match, with slight predominance in the final 15 minutes. The incidence of lesions per 1,000 game hours was similar to the average found in the literature.

Conclusions: The results obtained allowed us to outline a profile of the prevalence, distribution per body segment, minute in which occurred and severity of injuries in professional football players of participating teams in the Copa America 2011 in Argentina. The extreme rigor of referees may be partly attributed to the highly competitive nature of international tournaments. However, this results cannot be considered definitive because of the need to be compared to other epidemiological studies with same design using similar concepts and criteria.