Injury analysis of elite Gaelic football
Word count: 1300
Introduction:
This article will initially provide a brief overview of the history, rules and anthropometrical norms of Gaelic football. The author will then analyse and discuss the current evidence regarding the risks, incidence and mechanisms of injury within elite Gaelic football players. The article will then provide injury prevention training recommendations for the strength and conditioning (S&C) coach. Finally, concluding by highlighting potential future areas of research.
Gaelic football is a branch of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Ireland’s largest sporting organisation and is the most popular sporting discipline within the GAA, hurling, handball, camogie and rounders making up the other sports 1,2. All sports within the GAA are amateur despite professional like training schedules at the elite level 3,4. Representing ones county at senior Inter-county level is the most elite standard of Gaelic football. The All-Ireland championship is the premier Gaelic football competition and often exceeds stadium attendances over 80,000 people 4. The ball is similar to a soccer ball but heavier, and the aim of Gaelic football is to outscore the opposing team. Teams can score via two methods; a goal (equalling 3 points) and a point, kicking the ball over the crossbar (equalling 1 point) 2,4. The pitch size is 80-90M wide and 130-145m in length. Each team is composed of 15 players; a goalkeeper, six defenders, two midfielders and six forwards (figure 1).
Figure 1. Player positions in Gaelic football.
Gaelic football is predominantly an intermittent, aerobic based, evasion team sport, with repeated bouts of short duration high-intensity anaerobic actions 1,2,5. Gaelic football involves a range of skills including the ability to catch, kick, pass, tackle, block, all while moving at speed within a chaotic team environment 2,4.
The amount of published literature referring specifically to Gaelic football is limited, but the frequency of publications within this sport has increased steadily in recent years, specifically regarding running performance 3,5–8, injury analysis 9–12 and nutrition 1. Table 1 presents the recently published anthropometric data of inter-county Gaelic footballers. Gaelic footballers share anthropometric and running performance similarities with Australian football and soccer 2,4. Due to the lack of published literature referring specifically to Gaelic football, these alternative sports can offer themselves as rough benchmarks for anthropometrical and epidemiological norms 13.
Table 1. Anthropometric data of inter-county Gaelic footballers.
Injury analysis:
Recently, there has been a surge in the epidemiological data regarding injury within Gaelic football populations 6,9,10. Table 2 presents an overview of this research and the mechanisms and incidence of injury in Gaelic footballers.
Roe, Murphy, Gissane, and Blake, (2016) analysed the injury data of 15 elite male Gaelic football teams over an eight-year period (2008-2015) and found the hamstring to be the most common site of muscular injury. Between the 2008-2011 and 2012-2015 seasons, the authors reported that hamstring injury incidences increased twofold (1.9 vs. 3.9 per 1000 hours). Similarly, Murphy, O’Malley, Gissane, and Blake, (2012) recorded injuries in 851 inter-country footballers over four competitive seasons and found hamstring injuries accounted for almost one-quarter (24%) of all injuries and over half (52%) of muscle injuries. Hamstring injuries present a serious cause for concern within all team sports 15–17. Hamstring injury is similarly widespread in elite Australian rules footballers 16,18 and professional soccer players 19. Previous hamstring injury presents as a significant predictor of a future hamstring injury in Gaelic football 12, rugby union 20, Australian rules football 18 and soccer 21. Although, global injury rates per 1000 hours of exposure are less in elite Australian football (1.3 – 4.7) and professional soccer players (2.48 - 9.4), potentially suggesting that more effective injury prevention strategies are adopted within these sports 19,22.
The majority of hamstring injuries in elite Gaelic football occur during sprinting (73.4%) 12. Furthermore, sprinting is the primary mechanism of injury in colligate 9 and adolescent 10 Gaelic footballers, with 25% of injuries occurring during sprint activities. Similar percentages (26.8%) are seen in elite senior inter-county Gaelic footballers 14. These findings demonstrate the urgent need for more effective hamstring injury prevention strategies in Gaelic football. Therefore, the S&C coach should make hamstring development and conditioning a primary emphasis, so that all athlete’s hamstrings are appropriately prepared to deal with the rigours of Gaelic football match-play and training.
Newell, Grant, Henry, and Newell, (2006) examined the injuries sustained to 511 male inter-county level footballers over the course of one season and found a large proportion (47%) of injuries are sustained in the final quarter of a game or Gaelic football training. This coincides with Murphy et al., (2012), who found 59% of match play injuries occurred in the second half of the game. The incidence of injury is significantly greater during matches in comparison to training (Table 2) in adolescents (9.26 in match vs. 3.01 in training), collegiate (25.1 vs. 7.3) and senior (61.86 to 64 vs. 4.05 to 5.5) level Gaelic footballers 9,10,14,23. These findings suggest that players are at a greater risk of injury during match play and as players become fatigued in the later stages of a game they are more susceptible to injury. If players are sufficiently conditioned, they may be better able to resist fatigue and less likely to get injured. Recent research from Malone et al., (2016) on 37 inter-county Gaelic footballers supports this. The authors found that players with inferior aerobic fitness (based on a 1km time trial) were at a greater risk of injury in comparison to players with superior aerobic fitness. Therefore, the running performance and fitness levels of Gaelic footballers should also be of paramount interest to the S&C coach.
Table 2. Injury analysis data of Gaelic footballers.
Training recommendations:
It is outside the scope of this article to offer training recommendations for all potential injuries. Instead, this article will focus on the most prevalent and preventable injuries, primarily, non-contact muscular injuries.
As mentioned, hamstring injury is the most frequent non-contact muscular injury in senior Gaelic footballers 12,14,23. Eccentric strength levels have been shown to correlate with a reduced risk of hamstring injury in rugby league 25, Australian football 26 and soccer 27. While one can assume that these findings can be extrapolated to Gaelic football, there is currently no empirical evidence utilising such methods with a Gaelic football population.
A systematic review and meta-analysis by Goode et al., (2015) found that eccentric strength training with strict compliance is an effective strategy to prevent against hamstring injury 28. The Nordic hamstring exercise (NHE) has been shown to increase eccentric hamstring strength and decrease the risk of hamstring injuries in elite Australian football 26, professional rugby union 29 and amateur soccer players 21. Van der Horst, Smits, Petersen, Goedhart, and Backx, (2015) validated the NHE in a randomised control trial by significantly decreasing the incidence of hamstring injury (P = .005) in 579 amateur soccer players across 40 teams, over a 13-week intervention period. The intervention protocol periodically increased athlete’s exposure to the NHE, from 2 sets of 5 repetitions once a week in week 1 up to 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions twice a week in week 13. To minimise the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) when implementing the NHE, S&C coaches should start with lower volumes (2 sets of 3-5 repetitions) and look to increase the volume over time gradually 27. S&C coaches can include the NHE as part a structured S&C programme or post Gaelic training to ensure hamstrings are not fatigued before high intensity sprinting, as this may predispose athletes to hamstring injury 30.
Figure 2. Nordic hamstring exercise (adapted from Petersen et al. 31).
Further research:
Strength training has been validated as a preventative mechanism against sports injury 32, but there is currently little empirical evidence regarding strength training in Gaelic footballers. As previously mentioned, eccentric strength training has decreased the incidence of hamstring injury in numerous team sports 21,26,27,29. Therefore, there is a gap in the literature for detailed strength profiling and an eccentric hamstring training intervention protocol within a Gaelic football population, as a larger and more diverse evidence base would provide normative data and help inform the S&C coach’s programming and training goals.
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