Associations between maturation assessment methods and growth-related injury occurrence in a German Bundesliga youth football academy
Felix Laukhardt, Tobias Engeroff, Sebastian Schneider, Christian Haser, Daniel Niederer, David Groneberg, Winfried Banzer · 2026
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Description
Teen footballers pass through a growth spurt that raises the risk of growth-related injuries, but academies measure that stage in many different ways. Felix Laukhardt and six co-authors followed 205 boys at a German Bundesliga academy for a year, checking maturity four times with nine methods, in a 2026 study. They then linked each method's growth stage to the injuries recorded that quarter.
Only one method, an ultrasound-based one, clearly tied its spurt window to more growth-related injuries. Other methods mostly linked later maturity to non-contact injuries, while contact injuries showed no pattern. The authors call the findings early and urge larger studies before academies change practice.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Felix Laukhardt, Tobias Engeroff, Sebastian Schneider, Christian Haser, Daniel Niederer, David Groneberg, Winfried Banzer |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 35 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |