Sport injury prevention strategies and sporting behaviors of male professional footballers - A cross-sectional study.

Background: Identifying how playing positions (PP) and playing years (PY) influence injury prevention strategies (IPS) and sporting behaviors (SB) of footballers may guide health professionals in developing targeted interventions to prevent sports injuries and enhance players' fitness. This study assessed the association of PP and PY with IPS and SB of male professional footballers.

Methodology: A cross-sectional survey of 130 male footballers aged 18 to 35 years, from six professional teams in Calabar, Cross River, Nigeria. Data was collected on PP, PY, IPS, and SB using adapted questionnaires on IPS and SB. Data was summarised using frequencies and percentages. The Chi-square test was used to analyse the associations among variables at p < 0.05.

Results: Respondents were 31.5% defenders, 32.3% midfielders, 31.5% forwards, and 4.6% goalkeepers. Among these respondents, 54.6% played for 1-5 years, 42.3% for 6-10 years, and 3.1% for 11-15 years. Injury prevention was important to 57.7%, 86.9% had used IPS, 26.9% had used FIFA 11+, and 23.8% had used general warm-up programmes. In SB, 40.0% of respondents looked forward to matches and training, and over 50% felt energetic, found sporting meaningful, behaved aggressively towards opponents, exhibited fair play, acted strong and rigorous, were oblivious of surroundings, felt inspired, and were happy when engrossed in sport. Significant associations (p<0.05) were found between SB and each of PP and PY. PP and PY were not significantly associated (p>0.05) with IPS.

Conclusion: Although PP and PY influenced the SB of male professional footballers, they do not impact IPS. Usage of IPS was higher in FIFA 11+ than in other IPS. Defenders and forwards have a higher propensity of exhibiting aggressive behaviours towards opponents when liable to injury than midfielders, while the burden of a team having good results was highest among defenders and midfielders than in forwards and goalkeepers.