Nota de Prensa
TUE 10.06.2025
The North American journal Sports Health, one of the most influential international scientific publications in sports medicine and health of the high-performance athlete, has awarded its annual prize for the best original research article to a study developed with official data from the LALIGA competition through Mediacoach.
The paper, entitled "Reduced Match Exposure in the Previous 2 Matches Accounts for Hamstring Muscle Injury Incidence in Professional Football Players" (https://doi.org/10.1177/19417381231158117 ), demonstrates that low participation in previous matches significantly increases the risk of hamstring muscle injury. Specifically, the risk increases when a player has played less than 64 minutes in the previous game, or less than 95 minutes in the previous two games combined.
The data was obtained through Mediacoach, the performance analysis platform used by the 42 professional clubs of LALIGA. The article was led by researchers from the Universidad Miguel Hernández (UMH) and the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), in collaboration with the Football Intelligence & Performance area of LALIGA.
"This finding changes the way we understand prevention: we should not only monitor overload, but also competitive under-exposure. There are risk profiles that until now went unnoticed," explains Víctor Moreno, principal investigator of the study and professor at the Miguel Hernández University.
This new approach complements traditional load monitoring models and aligns with a more individualized perspective of risk, especially useful in players with little recent competitive participation. The results can be applied to both longitudinal fitness monitoring and decision making during minutes and rotation planning in professional squads.
"This international recognition reinforces our commitment to convert data into useful knowledge for clinical and sporting decisions that protect player health," highlights Ricardo Resta, Director of Football Intelligence & Performance at LALIGA and co-author of the study.
A pioneering model of science and data in professional soccer
LALIGA is the only major professional league that has a specific structure such as the Football Intelligence & Performance area, dedicated to generating rigorous scientific knowledge from official competition data, in partnership with leading universities.
Thanks to this pioneering model, LALIGA has already promoted more than 60 scientific publications in indexed international journals, many of them focused on injury prevention and physical performance.
Four of the authors of the article now awarded by Sports Health already received in 2022 the National Award for Research in Sports Medicine - Cajastur Foundation, for a study that analyzed the impact of the ACTN3 genotype (popularly known as "the speed gene") on physical performance and the risk of muscle injury in LALIGA players: "ACTN3 XX Genotype Negatively Affects Running Performance and Increases Muscle Injury Incidence in LaLiga Football Players". (https://doi.org/10.3390/genes15030386).
That study concluded that players with the ACTN3 XX genotype, who do not produce the α-actinin-3 protein essential for fast muscle fibers, have lower running performance and a higher probability of muscle injury. This finding opened the door to personalized training and prevention plans according to the genetic profile of the soccer player, without implying a talent selection criterion.
"A small genetic variation can make real differences on the field. This information should not be used to select talent, but it can be used to individualize training and reduce the risk of injury," says Juan Del Coso, a researcher at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and lead author of the study.
The international recognition, added to the national award previously obtained, consolidates this research group -formed by the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC), the Universidad Miguel Hernández (UMH) and LALIGA- as a reference in the multidisciplinary study of the health of professional soccer players, integrating performance analysis, genetics and injury epidemiology.
"The transfer of this scientific knowledge into practical tools such as Mediacoach is what really makes the difference in the daily work of clubs. The real innovation is not to publish research, but to ensure that this knowledge ends up helping a player to avoid injury," says Roberto López del Campo, Coordinator of Football Intelligence & Performance and Sports Research Area of LALIGA.
Evidence-based injury prevention: an established line of work
The two award-winning studies are part of a stable line of research promoted by LALIGA, in collaboration with universities and club medical services, which has given rise to other key articles:
- "Influence of the Weekly and Match-play Load on Muscle Injury in Professional Football Players" showed that the accumulation of high-intensity efforts in the week before and especially in the five minutes prior to injury is a critical factor. This finding triggered the integration into Mediacoach Live Pro of a real-time alert system.
(https://doi.org/10.1055/a-1533-2110 ) - "Hamstring Muscle Injury is Preceded by a Short Period of Higher Running Demands" confirmed that most hamstring injuries occur after a short phase of high physical demand, which exceeds what is usual for that player in that stretch of the match.
(https://doi.org/10.5114/biolsport.2024.127387) - "Understanding the Impact of Hamstring Injuries on Match Performance" observed that after returning to competition, players with moderate to severe injuries take several matches to recover their previous levels of intensity, speed and metabolic load.
(https://doi.org/10.26582/k.55.2.18 ) - "LaLiga Lockdown: Conditioning Strategy and Adaptation to In-Game Regulations" reflected how a scientific strategy of returning to competition after confinement prevented an increase in injuries despite the compressed schedule.
(https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19052920)
Technology at the service of soccer players' health
The findings of this research do not remain in the academic realm: they are integrated into practical solutions for the day-to-day work of professional clubs.
Mediacoach, the official platform of LALIGA, allows:
- Monitor the actual physical load of each player.
- Activate injury risk alerts in real time.
- Review suspicious injury actions through the Video Review System, developed with Microsoft within the Beyond Stats ecosystem.
A differential model with real impact
With this new international recognition, LALIGA consolidates a unique model in world soccer: its own structure dedicated to generating applied science, in collaboration with universities and medical professionals, to protect the health of professional players.
© LALIGA - 2025