FUNDING
Malta Sports Scholarship Scheme
PROJECT PARTNERS
Malta Football Association
Cardiff University
BACKGROUND
National team sporting events are popular and exciting for spectators, however, they entail a risk of injury for the National team players. In order to mitigate the risk and prevent injuries, sporting organisational bodies have carried out injury surveillance under the guidance of the respective consensus statements to understand injury patterns during such tournaments. Yet, it has been reported that injury data obtained from these short events only provide a ‘snapshot’ of information with regards to the injury burden, thus emphasising the need for a long-term, continuous injury monitoring system for national team players. Therefore, this study will aim to bridge the gap in knowledge through the design of a prospective longitudinal injury monitoring system framework that aims to monitor injuries of national team players both while with their clubs and with the National team. However, designing and implementing an injury monitoring system as guided by sport-respective consensus statements will not translate effectively in non-elite settings –such as in Maltese football setting- due to different and various contextual determinants revolving around injury perceptions and injury reporting methods. Hence, there is a need to understand the role of contextual determinants in order to develop and implement a longitudinal injury monitoring system that best fit the context of the Maltese National team football players
Objectives of the project:
1. Develop a longitudinal injury monitoring system tailored for Maltese National team football players
2. Understand Injury Problem
3. Evaluate the Injury monitoring system as a practical tool
This development of the injury monitoring system will be based on findings from the initial qualitative study, which will shed light on the perceptions of injuries and the current practices and barriers in injury reporting. The injury monitoring system will be implemented with the U-21 National Maltese Football Team and the Senior Female Maltese Football Team for 2 consecutive seasons. The monitoring system will be used both as a practical tool to monitor injuries throughout the study period and as a research tool to understand the injury problem. Thereafter, the injury monitoring system will be evaluated using the RE-AIM framework, triangulated with qualitative findings on the acceptability and utility of the system.