Enhancing the implementation of injury prevention exercise programmes in professional football

I investigated the use of injury prevention exercise programmes (IPEPs) in professional football teams. The primary aim was to identify barriers and facilitators to successfully implementing these programmes under real-world conditions.

Injuries in football are common and have multiple negative impacts. The efficacy of IPEPs for football has been established in large-scale randomised controlled trials. Despite this, many teams choose not to adopt these programmes, or do not comply with them fully.1 2 Unfortunately, the reasons for low adoption and compliance are poorly understood and have received very little research attention. My PhD aimed to address this gap by evaluating barriers and facilitators to IPEP implementation under real-world conditions.

Firstly, I conducted two systematic reviews of published IPEPs trials, in both football and other team ball...