Professional Soccer Goalkeepers:
Incidence of Injuries

Soccer goalkeepers are considered a tactical position differentiated from other line players.
The motor actions performed by the goalkeepers require skills using the upper limbs as well as the lower limbs.
The vast majority of these motor actions involve reactive explosive movements.
Because much of the goalkeeper’s action involves reaction speed and jumps, his body positions, sometimes during falls, suffer severe impacts.
When reacting to a moving ball, the goalkeeper faces beyond the ball, opposing players creating dangerous situations that can lead to cause injury.
Therefore, when we refer to injuries, the goalkeepers must have a different pattern from the other players.
The scientific literature has reported some research involving injuries in soccer goalkeepers.
According to Schmitt et al (2008), amateur goalkeepers suffer more injuries when compared to professional goalkeepers.
In game conditions on artificial grass the lesions tend to be larger than in the natural grass (Schmitt et al, 2008).
Regarding the anatomical location of injuries in goalkeepers, studies tend to show different body segments.
Goodman et al (2018) report that goalkeepers’ shoulders and elbows have a high incidence of injury when compared to line players. This data involve male and female NCAA goalkeepers.
They are: instability of the shoulder and elbow, rotator cuff tears/sprains, and acromioclavicular joint injuries.
Terra et al. (2013) studying shoulder injuries in goalkeepers indicate that the most common type of trauma occurs in abduction, extension and external rotation (in 90% of cases).
It tends to occur in two special situations:
- - In diving when defending balls at half height (~ 1 meter);
- Or the ball defense near the ground.
Green & Ryan (1997) describe injuries to the wrists of goalkeepers: scaphoid bone fracture.

López-Zabala & Fernandez-Valencia (2013) studied a rare injury in a fifty-one-year-old goalkeeper. It is a distal rupture of the biceps brachii muscle.
In young goalkeepers, Boyd et al (2001) cite the case of distal radial fractures.
In the lower limbs of the goalkeepers, Boden et al (1999) shows that contact lesions tend to fracture the tibia and fibula of the athletes (around 6%).
In the study by Mihalik et al (2005), the authors describe the case of maxillofacial injury and dental trauma in a young goalkeeper (~ 17 years old).
The athlete suffered this trauma in the face after being hit with the knee of an opponent player.
The investigators of this study propose that young goalkeepers wear a mouthguard during training and especially in matches to minimize the above mentioned injuries.
We could speculate that due to the training of the goalkeeper being different from the other players, his muscular apparatus would also present different conditions.
Konrad & Tilp (2018) compared the properties of muscle and tendon tissues of goalkeepers, midfielders and control group (RoM, PRT, MVC torque, muscle thickness, fascicle length, pennation angle, muscle stiffness, and passive tendon stiffness of the gastrocnemius medialis).
No differences were found in the architectural structures of muscles and tendons in the three groups studied.

It would be interesting to know the risk of a goalkeeper being afflicted by an injury.
In this sense, I found an article that assesses the risks of injury to goalkeepers during games, specific training and other types of soccer training.
According to Strand et al (2011) he cites two very common situations in which goalkeepers can suffer injuries:
A)- Dispute in airspace after cross pass;
B)- A duel where the goalkeeper left to save a pass and was hit.
✅ The infographic was adapted from Strand et al (2011). Injury risk for goalkeepers in Norwegian male professional football. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 45 (04); 331–331.

- ** This article was originally written in my BLOG.***
- My BLOG: https://adrianovretaros.blogspot.com/
REFERENCES
Boden et al (1999). Tibia and fibula fractures in soccer players. Knee Surgery Sports Traumatology Arthroscopy, 07 (04); 262–266.
Boyd et al (2001). Distal radial fractures in young goalkeepers: a case for an appropriately sized soccer ball. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 35(6), 409–411.
Goodman et al (2018). Shoulder and elbow injuries in soccer goalkeepers versus field players in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, 2009–2010 through 2013–2014. The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 1–8.
Green, JJ & Ryan, GM (1997). Scaphoid fractures in soccer goalkeepers. The Journal of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, 90 (02); 56–47.
Hägglund et al (2013). Risk factors for lower extremity muscle injury in professional soccer: the UEFA Injury Study. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 41 (02), 327–335.
Konrad, A & Tilp, M (2018). Muscle and tendon tissue properties of competitive soccer goalkeepers and midfielders. German Journal of Exercise and Sports Research, DOI: 10.1007/s12662–018–0510–7
López-Zabala & Fernandez-Valencia (2013). Nonoperative treatment of distal biceps brachii musculotendinous partial rupture: a report of two cases. Case Reports in Orthopedics, http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/970512
Mihalik et al (2005). Maxillofacial fractures and dental trauma in high school soccer goalkeeper: a case report. Journal of Athletic Training, 40 (02); 116.
Strand et al (2011). Injury risk for goalkeepers in Norwegian male professional football. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 45 (04); 331–331.
Schmitt et al (2008).[Hip injuries in professional and amateur soccer goalkeepers].Sportverletzung Sportschaden, 22 (03); 159–163.
Terra et al (2013). Arthroscopic treatment of glenohumeral instability in soccer goalkeepers. International Journal Sports Medicine, 34 (06); 473–476.
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