INJURIES AMONG ITALIAN FEMALE FUTSAL PLAYERS: QUESTIONNAIRE

Studies have found great occurrence of injuries among football and futsal players, especially among female population. One of the most elite European female futsal championships is Italian Serie A. Besides quality of the Serie A, Italy can be proud of good organization of lower leagues and quantity of active female futsal players. In three divisions organized by national federation there are more than 4.000 active female futsal players. If you add all the amateur futsal leagues, number of active players is much bigger. The aim of this research was to enter the number, frequency, locality and the type of injuries, along with the consequences, among Italian female futsal players. Methods: sample was consisted of Serie A, C, D and amateur league female futsal players (N= 95) in the Veneto region. Players completed the questionnaire, consisted of morphological measures, training and competition information and information about types, locality, frequency and consequences of injuries during their career. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to calculate statistical differences in the number and types of injuries among groups. Results have demonstrated that the most common injury among Italian female futsal players is ankle sprain (42.14%), followed by the ligament injury and meniscus lesion (18.88%) and contusions (13.84%). Total of 159 injuries in 83 players (87.73%) were recorded. 78.31% of injuries were result of a trauma. 28.92% respondents suffered repeated injury. The highest number of injuries (61.45%) occurred during competition. Statistical significance (p<0,05) has been shown in the number of injuries between groups and the number of knee injuries. Conclusion: the most common injury among Italian female futsal players is ankle sprain, followed by the knee injury. Significant differences have been shown among groups in the number of injuries occurred and the number of knee injuries. Training programs should be improved with the more frequent use of better preventive programs decreasing these types of injuries.