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Introduction
In modern professional soccer, the ability to recover from official match play and intense training is often considered to be a determining factor in subsequent performance. 1 Professional soccer players are often required to play competition matches with only 2-3 days' recovery in between. In such conditions, the maintenance or improvement of the player's activity is determined not only by appropriate conditioning but also by the ability of the body systems to recover and regenerate after multiple stress stimuli. 2-5
Several investigations have analysed the physical activity profiles and injury rates of professional soccer players during intense periods of matches. 6-12 Unexpectedly, those studies did not reveal any differences in the distances covered at various speeds and in the injury risk across successive matches played in a short time period. However, except for the work of Carling et al 7 in these previous studies, physical performance and injury rates were examined across only two or three consecutive games played over a timescale of 3-7 days.
The effects of a single prolonged period of fixture congestion (eight matches in 26 days) on a top-level team were investigated. 7 The major findings revealed that the high-intensity running (HIR) and the injury rate of the players remained unaffected. However, these findings are not conclusive due to specific limitations: (1) the number of players studied varied from match to match; (2) only six players took part in every game as starters or substitutes; (3) only one outfield player completed every game studied and the goalkeeper was included in that study. Further research is necessary to explore the effects of short recovery times between matches on physical activity and injury rates. Additionally, there is a lack of data regarding the effects of prolonged periods of fixture congestion on technical performance.
Therefore, two hypotheses were proposed in the current study: (1) physical and technical performances would differ across games over a single congested period of 3 weeks (six games), and depending on the soccer season time periods, (2) match injury rates and severity would be greater during the prolonged period of fixture congestion compared with the habitual one-game per week period. The aim of this work was twofold. First, to investigate the influence of playing multiple games with a short...