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Prevalence of injuries in female athletes of Brazilian futsal: a retrospective study

INTRODUCTION: Futsal has become one of the most popular modalities in the international scenario. There are not many articles in the literature which report injuries in the female gender. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of injuries in female athletes of Brazilian futsal. METHODS: The sample corresponded to the athletes who participated in the National League of Futsal from 2011, totalizing 135 athletes. The prevalence of injuries reported during the entire 2010 season was investigated. RESULTS: Out of the 135 athletes, 73 (54.1%) presented some kind of injury and 104 injuries were identified. Lower limb injuries accounted for 86.5% of the total, 28.9% (n = 30) on the ankle, 24% (n = 25) on the thigh and 23.1% on the knee (n = 24). Regarding the kind, 51.9% (n = 54) occurred without contact and 46.1% (n = 48) by direct contact. 59.6% of injuries occurred during technical/tactical or physical training (n = 62) and 40.4% (n = 42) occurred during during games. 58.6% of injuries occurred for the first time and 40.4% were recurrent. No association between physiotherapeutic follow-up in training and competitions and the number and severity of injuries was found. Furthermore, no correlation between the dominant limb and hemi-body of the injury was found. CONCLUSIONS: The Brazilian women's futsal athletes have high prevalence of injuries, especially in the ankle, thigh and knee, and they mainly occur during training. Injuries that occur without contact with another opponent prevail in relation to with contact injury, a fact that contradicts the other findings in the literature. The number of first injuries was higher in comparison to recurrences, while in severity, moderate injuries were more common. In order to minimize the number of injuries, specific strategies are needed for prevention, focusing on the ankle, knee and thigh segments.

indoor soccer; athletic injuries; women


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