Study Shows Hamstring Injuries Are Becoming The Most Common Issue For Professional Footballers

Hamstring injuries have become one of the biggest concerns in professional football and a recent study has revealed how the problem is continuing to grow.

Football fans often here about a player missing out with a hamstring injury, or see a player sprinting and suddenly coming to a stop holding the back of their leg.

Most recently, Arsenal defender Gabriel was forced off with a hamstring injury and the Brazilian international will now have surgery – missing the remainder of the 2024/25 season.

It appears to be a weekly thing that a player from a top league around the world is dealing with a hamstring problem and it is becoming the most common injury in football.

We wondered why that is and a recent study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine has dived into this.

How Common Are Hamstring Injuries In Football?

As we have already mentioned, hamstring injuries are a major issue for professional male footballers and have been for the last twenty years.

The study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine revealed that over 21-years (2001/02-2021/22) the number of injuries to hamstring increased drastically.

Around 3909 players from 54 teams were included in this study, using a large sample size to find out why the hamstring is such a major point of injury.

In the 2001/02 season, 12% of injuries were due to issues with hamstrings, however, in 2021/22 this increased as 24% of injuries were to the leg muscle.

Alongside this, the number of days that a player was out for with a hamstring injury went up from 10% to 20% across these 21 seasons.

There were 2636 hamstring injuries during this time, which made up 19% of every reported injury between 2001/02 and 2021/22.

Interestingly, around 18% of players suffered an issue to the same injury within two months of returning from the initial hamstring problem.

These injuries don’t just occur in matches, as players are often dealing with knocks to the hamstring during training sessions.

Seeing such a rise in hamstring injuries is not down to just one singular reason, but instead there are a plethora of factors.

The first being an increase in match intensity, as the modern game is far more reliant on a high-press and players are covering more distance than ever.

Additionally, the number of matches is consistently increasing due to the added competitions and players are making more appearances than ever.

For example, Manchester City star Rodri played 63 matches in the 2023/24 season for his club and country, which was followed by a major leg injury after just two games in the following season.

Note: All data from Ekstrand et al., 2023, British Journal of Sports Medicine.