The association between GPS‐derived external workload metrics and soleus muscle injuries in professional football (soccer) players
Luca Benedetti, Matthew Buckthorpe, Stefano Di Paolo, Francesco Della Villa, Gianni NanniAbstract
Purpose
To investigate the association between external GPS workload metrics and soleus muscle injuries (SMI) in elite professional football.
Methods
A retrospective cohort study was conducted across seven consecutive seasons (2017/2018–2023/2024) in a single Italian Serie A first‐team squad. One hundred and sixty player‐season observations were included (25.4 ± 3.2 years; goalkeepers excluded), with 4704 match‐hours and 31,686 training‐hours recorded. SMIs were defined as time‐loss soleus muscle complaints (excluding contact injuries) diagnosed by the club medical staff in accordance with FIFA consensus definitions and classified as structural or non‐structural. External loads were quantified using 50 Hz GPS (Stats Perform) and included total distance, high‐intensity distance (≥16 km·h −1 ), sprint distance (≥25 km·h −1 ), and acceleration/deceleration distances (≥±2.0 m·s −2 ). For injured players, workloads were averaged across the 7‐ and 28‐day window preceding injury (excluding injury day) and compared to control periods of equal duration. Between‐player comparisons contrasted injured players' injury periods with control periods in non‐injured players.
Results
Twenty‐nine SMIs (52% were nonstructural) occurred in 17 players. Injured players were older than noninjured players (29.2 ± 3.9 vs. 25.0 ± 3.2 years; p = 0.041). Most injuries occurred in training (83%); incidence was 0.76/1000 training‐hours and 1.06/1000 match‐hours; injury burden was 10.86 days/1000 hours. No within‐player differences were observed between injury and control weeks for any workload metric ( p > 0.05). Over 28 days, injured players demonstrated lower sprint distance versus their control month (−37%; p = 0.014; d = −0.71). For between‐player analyses, deceleration distance was higher in the 7‐day injury period versus noninjured controls (+17%; p = 0.041; d = 0.44), with no 28‐day differences.
Conclusion
SMIs imposed a substantial burden in elite football and were not preceded by acute workload spikes relative to players' own control periods. Findings suggest SMIs may occur within a context of sustained high training volumes, with modest elevations in short‐term deceleration exposure and reduced longer‐term sprint distance observed prior to injury.
Level of Evidence
Level III.