No Pain no Game or More Game More Pain? The Effects of Summer Congested Games Periods on Professional European Male Football Players’ Injury Occurrences for the Following Season: A Data Analytics Approach

Abstract

Two recent congested periods, the post Covid19 lockdown period (May-August 2020) and Euro 2020 (JuneJuly 2021) forced European male footballers to consistently play games for nearly three years with long duration of congested games and insufficient rest days. This phenomenon has not been previously observed to such extent. This study uses data analytics and statistics to investigate how these two congested periods during seasons 19/20, 20/21 and 21/22 affected the injuries occurrences in European male footballers who both participated in Euro 2020 and played in one of the seven major European leagues, using Transfermarkt data. The results indicate that the severity and injury days out for each injury were significantly increased when comparing the 20/21 and 21/22 seasons (before and after Euro 2020), but not for 19/20 and 20/21 seasons. In
contrast, there were no significant differences on injury rates and occurrences when comparing the congested games period after March 2020 lockdown with the season before lockdown or the 20/21 season. Furthermore, the players whose national teams reached the group of 16 stage onwards in Euro 2020, exhibited more fitnessrelated occurrences during the 21/22 season. With regards to the injuries each player exhibited, there was a significant difference on their total days out, and days out for their first and longest injury when comparing seasons 20/21 and 21/22. Also, there was a significant increase on the severity of injuries each player exhibited as well as the how soon each player was reported with an injury. However, no similar results were observed when comparing the 19/20 season (before the Covid19 March 2020 lockdown) and the 20/21 season.