An Examination of Injuries in Major League Soccer: The Inaugural Season

We analyzed the injury data collected from the 10 teams (237 players) that constituted Major League Soccer during its inaugural season. The overall injury rate was 6.2 per 1000 hours of participation. An injury rate of 2.9 per 1000 hours was noted for practice and 35.3 per 1000 hours was found for games. The difference was statistically significant. With regard to severity, 36% of injuries (143 of 399) were categorized as an incident (no time lost from competition). Of the 256 injuries that caused the player to lose playing time, 59% were classified as minor (7 days lost), 28% as moderate (7 to 29 days lost), and 13% as major (30 days lost). Seventy-seven percent of the injuries (197 of 256) were to the lower extremity; most frequently affected were the knee (N 54) and ankle (N 46). Neither the player's age nor playing position was found to be associated with prevalence or severity of injury. We believe that this information serves to underscore the notion that soccer, as it is played at the professional level, is a sport with a relatively low incidence of injury.