ABSTRACT
There are few epidemiological studies that document the type and incidence of soccer injuries in young players and thus there are relatively few generalizations that can be made regarding injuries occurring on a frequent or regular basis. Soccer is appropriately considered a contact sport, which is different from a collision sport, such as American football. In soccer, contact is a part of the game but it occurs as incidental to and not as a planned part of the game. Contact is not used to stop, impede or alter the course of another player, and the upper body is not used to grasp or pull on a regular basis. Thus, in soccer the predominance of injuries occur in the lower extremities (see Figure 4.1).
