Potential head injuries in women's football: Identification of coachable moments.

OBJECTIVES

To describe and analyse mechanisms of potential head injuries across a range of playing age-groups during women's European international tournaments and explore whether there were any 'coachable moments' which might prevent a similar incident from being repeated in the future. (NB 'coachable moment' was defined as a player action or behaviour that could be modified through coaching (i.e. it is considered modifiable).)

METHODS

This mixed-methods video analysis study reviewed all potential head injuries from the broadcasted match footage from the 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship (WEURO), 2024 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (WU19), and 2024 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship (WU17), including an in-depth independent analysis of 10 potential head injury events by 11 different coders (including professional women players and coaches) to identify any coachable moments.

RESULTS

Across the three tournaments, there were 108 potential head injuries (WEURO n = 55, 52.08/1000 match hours (MH); WU19 n = 29, 57.31/1000 MH; WU17 n = 24, 45.45/1000 MH). Positionally, midfielders (excluding wingers) sustained the most potential head injuries (n = 32), followed by centre-backs (n = 26). The most frequently observed mechanism of a potential injury was opponent player-to-head impact (n = 74, 35.41/1000 MH), followed by unintentional ball-to-head impacts (n = 17, 8.13/1000 MH). Coachable moments were identified in all 10 events categorised into five themes: body positioning, awareness, communication, technique, and decision-making.

CONCLUSIONS

The identification of coachable moments provides insight into player actions that may contribute to a higher potential head injury risk in women's football. These data could be used to support a player-centric injury prevention approach being embedded into the coaching ecosystem.