AN ANALYSIS OF KNEE LIGAMENT MATCH INJURY INCIDENCE, BURDEN ANDSEVERITY PATTERNS ACROSS THE TOP FIVE EUROPEAN FOOTBALLLEAGUES THROUGHOUT THE 2022/2023 SEASON

This study aims to evaluate and comparatively assess the incidence and burden of knee ligament match injuries in the top five European football leagues (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and England) throughout the 2022–2023 season. Beyond that, knee ligament match injury classification is based on layoff days and injury severity patterns for each registered injury. A total of 3015 players from “the big” five (UEFA, 2023) European football leagues (with a total of 98 football clubs), namely, Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, Premier League and Serie A, with an average of 30.8 players, a mean age of 25.1 (SD ± 4.6) years, were included in the study, also with an average of 14451.4 minutes exposure hours per league. The total exposure amounted to 71,382.7. The medical team recorded individual player time-loss knee ligament match injuries. In this investigation, descriptive and inferential statistical analysis methods were deployed. The football players' injury characteristics, along with other variables, were statistically evaluated using descriptive statistics of means, standard deviations (SDs), and frequencies. Based on descriptive statistics concerning the knee ligament match injury severity patterns, the data reflect that the Premier League (43.86%) and Ligue 1 (43.1%) have the highest percentage of severe injuries, suggesting that both leagues have a larger burden of severe injuries. Although they are still over 40%, the severe injury rates in the Bundesliga and Serie A are marginally lower. While the Premier League has the lowest percentage of mild injuries (15.79%), La Liga separates with a comparatively higher percentage of moderate injuries (30%) than the other leagues, indicating that injuries in the Premier League tend to be more severe in nature. In general, Minimal injuries are rare; the lowest percentage is found in Ligue 1 (3.45%). The collected data wasn't in line with a normal distribution therefore the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used to assess the incidence and burden of knee injuries within the five leagues. Subsequently, Dunn’s test was performed to determine exactly which leagues are different, the pairwise comparisons assessed differences in detail between every pair of leagues. The null hypothesis, as defined by which there is no difference in the knee ligament match incidence or knee ligament match burden of injuries between the leagues, was examined for every comparison. We reject the null hypothesis for the two analyses since the p-values for the incidence and burden of knee ligament match injuries are both 0.000, indicating substantial differences between the leagues for the knee ligament match injury incidence and burden