'After they see what you have, they contact you': a qualitative study of national team football players', coaches' and clinicians' experiences in engaging with a context-specific injury surveillance system

Sandro Vella, Caroline Bolling, Evert Verhagen, Isabel Sarah Moore

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Sports injury surveillance systems aid injury prevention, but their development without considering end-users' perspectives has led to low adherence and honesty in self-reporting by players, compromising their effectiveness. Context-specific injury surveillance systems have been proposed to address these challenges, but there is a limited understanding of stakeholders' perceptions and experiences in using them.

OBJECTIVE: Following the implementation of a context-specific injury surveillance system with 100% player adherence over 60 weeks, the study aimed to investigate Under-21 Maltese national football team players', coaches' and clinicians' experiences of how and why they engaged with the system.

METHOD: Seventeen semi-structured interviews with Under-21 Maltese male national football team players (n = 12), their coaches (n = 3) and clinicians (n = 2) were conducted. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

RESULTS: Participants highlighted questionnaire-related factors that motivated engagement with the context-specific injury surveillance system (theme 1) and factors influencing further engagement with the system based on stakeholders' actions (theme 2). Perceived outcomes experienced as a result of engaging with the injury surveillance system (theme 3), in turn, motivated players to continue reporting and engaging with the system.

CONCLUSION: To encourage players' sustained reporting, injury-related information collected from well-designed questionnaires should serve to stimulate communication and teamwork among stakeholders, to prevent injuries and enhance performance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)38-49
Number of pages12
JournalScience & medicine in football
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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