Sports medicine and diseases

Purpose: In this study, we investigated the epidemiology of injuries in Brazilian female professional soccer players and the relationship between muscle injuries and the ACTN3 gene R577X polymorphism.Methods: Injury data for the 2023 season was collected from medical records of 28 female players from a Brazilian high-level professional soccer team (mean age 22.7 5.6 years; height 164 0.5 cm; weight 57.2 6.6 kg).Genotype analysis of the ACTN3 R577X polymorphism was performed by extracting DNA from saliva samples.Results: A total of 27 from 28 players (96%) had a history of injury, resulting in 184 contact and non-contact injuries.Muscle injuries were most commonly reported (n=75), followed by joint and ligament injuries (n=42), and tendon injuries (n=24).There was a higher proportion of injuries to the lower extremities (90.7%) compared to the upper extremities (9.3%).As for the ACTN3 R577X polymorphism frequencies, 11 athletes presented the RR type, 13 had the RX type, and 4 the XX type.Athletes with the R allele type had a significantly higher frequency of muscle injuries than athletes with the XX type (p<0.001).Conclusion: In this study, we found that lower limb muscle injuries were the most common type and the ACTN3 gene R577X polymorphism may affect susceptibility to muscle injury.