UEFA Elite Club Injury Study: 25 years of protecting players

For a quarter of a century, the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study has united many of Europe's leading clubs, working together to build one of football's most comprehensive bodies of research, sharing knowledge and expertise that continues to shape injury prevention and player care throughout elite football.  

A simple question that started something extraordinary

In 2001, then UEFA president Lennart Johansson posed a simple question: did the differing number of matches played across Europe's domestic leagues affect player health?

That query was put to Professor Jan Ekstrand, then UEFA Medical Committee vice-chair, who would go on to become the driving force behind the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study.

"At the time, there was no study at elite-level football. A change was necessary with all the injuries that we saw," says Ekstrand. "It's also the responsibility of the confederations to analyse the effects of the sport on health."

And so, the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study was born. It has since evolved into one of football's most comprehensive research projects, with more than 28,000 injuries across 96 clubs analysed since its inception. In the men’s game, the data compiled over 25 years by the study point towards a real reduction in ligament injuries, indicating that systematic monitoring and feedback have helped clubs strengthen their preventative work. 

Ligament injury rates in men's football have dropped since the study began, in part thanks to the feedback loops between clubs' medical departments across Europe

While the raw data have provided huge benefits, Dr Nélson Puga, head of FC Porto's medical department and involved in the project since its inception, believes one of the project's greatest legacies has been shifting the approach from injury treatment to prevention. 

"In the beginning, we were only concerned about trying to fix and treat injuries, but we soon realised it was more important to prevent them," Puga explains. "We realised that was the key to keeping players available for matches." 

Working together for the good of football

The project has flourished thanks to the long-term commitment of clubs from across Europe. Each season, participating clubs submit anonymised injury records, performance data and other medical information to UEFA, where it is analysed before the findings are shared with the wider football medical community through research publications and scientific conferences.

This collaborative model creates a continuous cycle of learning: clubs contribute data, UEFA analyses the findings, and those insights are shared back with the clubs' medical departments to help improve player care across European football.

Professor Ekstrand insists that what makes the injury study special is its ability to unite clubs to a common cause. "The most important aspect is contact with the teams and the team doctors. That's vital. That's unique. It is very important that teams, doctors and UEFA work together. There is no other study where there is such good cooperation."

Paris Saint-Germain's Lluís Til Pérez believes his club has seen the benefits. "Participating in this study has enabled us to build stronger ties, because you can't grow and improve without collaborating and sharing knowledge," he says. "It's also taught us to adopt a more rigorous, scientific way of working that has greatly improved the quality of our research."

Impact on the women's game

The collaborative model has also played an important role in advancing medical understanding within women's football. As participation and professionalism have grown, the study has provided clubs with an increasingly valuable evidence base to better understand the specific injury patterns and rehabilitation needs of female athletes.

Data helps clubs identify which injuries have heavier impact on women's football

"The UEFA Elite Club Injury Study has [provided us with] a lot of information on women's epidemiology, especially about what type of injuries happen," says Juventus' Dr Chiara Vignati. "The data permits us to have a lot of literature and shared experience, allowing us to work in a different way with female athletes. The study has helped the prevention of injuries in women's football."

Over time, the study demonstrated that extrinsic risk factors, such as load and high-speed exposure in training, have the largest impact on elite level female footballers. It also painted a clearer picture of injury patterns for these players, allowing clubs to target prevention and rehabilitation more intelligently.

The vast majority of the causes of women's hamstring injuries are from extrinsic factors

As the UEFA Elite Club Injury Study enters its next chapter, its greatest strength remains the same as it was 25 years ago: the willingness of clubs to work together in pursuit of a common goal.

Every injury recorded, every dataset shared and every insight gained contribute not only to participating clubs but to the game as a whole, helping medical teams better understand how to keep players healthy, fit and performing at their best.