Neuromuscular training warm‐up in the prevention of overuse lower extremity injuries in children's football: A cluster‐randomized controlled trial

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of a neuromuscular training (NMT) warm‐up on the prevalence of overuse lower extremity (LE) injuries in children's football. Twenty Finnish U11‐U14 youth football clubs (n = 1409 players; females 280, males 1129; age range 9‐14) were randomized into intervention and control groups containing 10 clubs each (intervention: 44 teams, n = 676 players; control: 48 teams, n = 733 players). The intervention group performed a structured NMT warm‐up operated by team coaches for 20 weeks. The main outcome measure was the prevalence of football‐related overuse LE injuries and injuries were tracked via weekly text messages. The average weekly prevalence of overuse LE injuries was 11.6% (95% CI: 11.0%‐12.2%) in the intervention group and 11.3% (10.7%‐11.9%) in the control group. The most common anatomical locations were the knee (weekly prevalence 6.0% in the intervention group and 5.7% in the control group) and heel (2.4% and 2.6%). There was no difference in the prevalence of overuse LE injuries between the groups: odds ratio (OR) 1.01 (95% CI: 0.99‐1.03). In conclusion, NMT warm‐up was equal to standard practice warm‐up in preventing overuse LE injuries in children's football during a follow‐up of 20 weeks.