Knowledge and practice of FIFA warm-up protocols among Saudi Athletes participated during the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games (Baku 2017) and its relations to events musculoskeletal injuries

Background: Overall, participating in high level competition carries a high risk of injuries. Conventionally, proper warming up can decrease injury rate; however, there was no evidence based warm up protocol until 2006 when FIFA developed the warm up Program based on many randomized studies to prevent injuries. The FIFA medical research center developed FIFA 11+ Program to reduce injuries in football. The FIFA 11+S program was built according to the FIFA 11 + program and focused on preventing shoulder injuries for a goalie. The FIFA 11+ and FIFA11+S program has also been investigated in other sports and shows a significant decrease in injuries; they are a complete warm-up program with running exercises followed by specific preventive exercises focusing on core strength, balance, and agility. In this study, we assumed there is low adoption of this protocol among athletes, and there is a need to increase self-awareness of this protocol's outcomes. Methodology: Demonstrated FIFA 11+ and FIFA 11+S warm up components were shown to the athletes to assess their adherence. We also recorded the injuries among the athlete using the International Olympic Committee surveillance form for a daily report of injuries; then, we compared the adherence results and injury results using the Pearson Correlation Analysis Formula to find any association. Results: The warm up protocol data suggest low adherence giving a low percentage during the descriptive analysis of the warm up components; there was also a statistically significant correlation between the data of FIFA 11 + and the injured body part with a significant P-value of 0.037. Conclusion: Implementing FIFA 11+ and FIFA 11+ are not easy, but it is crucial giving low awareness of those exercises by athletes and its associations with injuries during the Baku 2019 Olympic Games.