INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: several authors have investigated the incidence of injuries occurred in outdoor soccer games. However, just a few are concerned about the athletes' healing period or the financial damage due to this no-activity period. The purpose of this study was to assess, through a cohort study, the injured athletes' recovery period, facing it to the variables: age, position in game and injure pattern. METHODS: The medical reports of all professional soccer players of Marília Atlético Clube who were injured during the Brazilian Soccer Championship - 2nd Division, from January/2003 to December/2005 were assessed, with a 24 months follow-up. RESULTS: Athletes' mean age (SD) was 24.5 years (4.4 years); the most frequently injured athletes were: strikers (36.8), center-backs (26.6%), center-midfielders (20%), side-midfielders (10%) and goalkeepers (6.6%). The most frequent injuries were: muscular (46.8%), ligament (26.6%), bone (16.6%) and meniscal (10%); the strikers have shown a mean recovery period of 28 days (78.3 days), the center-backs 26.5 days (33.9), the center-midfielders 18.5 days (66.3), the side-midfielders 17 days (129.9) and the goalkeepers 47.5 days (17.6). CONCLUSION: Statistical analysis showed that there was no correlation between athletes' age and their healing period (p/ =/ 0.31); there was no statistical difference between the healing period among the five different athletes' positions (p/ =/ 0.49); there was statistical difference between the healing period and the injury pattern (p/ </ 0.001) among the variables: meniscal and bone injuries, meniscal and muscular injuries, ligament and bone injuries and ligament and muscular injuries.
sport medicine; soccer injuries; soccer epidemiology; brazilian soccer championship
