ABSTRACT
Youth soccer academies are paramount in producing players capable of playing at professional level and eventually representing their country. The Clairefontaine National Institute of Football (Institut National du Football – INF)., France, is widely respected for its approach to the development and care of future professional players. However, there is a limited amount of information on injury in elite male youth players hoping to become professional players (Le Gall et al., 2006). At elite levels, the impact of injury has to be considered from the point of view of player development and skill acquisition. An audit of injury in elite English youth players showed that a significant proportion of development time can be missed through injury (Price et al., 2004). An elite player who is frequently or severely injured may struggle to achieve maximal levels of skill if training and competition are missed. A player’s potential to succeed may therefore in part be determined by his susceptibility to injury (Singer and Janelle 1999).
