Huthinson, Georgia Elizabeth (2025) The Influence of Biological Maturation on Injury in Male Academy Football. Masters thesis, York St John University.

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Abstract

There are many studies on professional male football and injuries, including injury risk, patterns and injury prevention strategies. However, only a handful have examined youth male academy players. A research gap exists in this area due to the period of rapid growth, peak height velocity and biological maturation that occurs throughout every player of academy football.

This study examines injury and illness characteristics in the youth development phase and differences between injury and illness characteristics related to growth rate and maturity status. The research question is: ‘what are the differences between injury symptoms and biological maturity groups?’.

This quantitative, single cohort, longitudinal design study had participants complete weekly questionnaires reporting their injury or illness, converted into an Oslo Sports Trauma Questionnaire severity score. Each participant was also placed into a growth group and a maturity group. Data was screened, descriptive statistics were analysed, bivariate correlations examined, Cohens d was interpreted and ANOVA (significance of p<0.05) with Bonferroni adjustment was applied. Pairwise comparisons and multiple linear regressions further examined predictive relationships.

Results showed a significant relationship between the low and moderate growth rate group and injury incidence and between pre-PHV (peak height velocity) and mid-PHV maturity group and injury incidence. No significant differences were found between biological maturity and ill-health. Overall, findings suggest that growth rate and maturation significantly influence injury risk in academy football.
This novel study provides an incremental contribution to the research area, emphasising that growth and maturation significantly influence injury risk within youth academy football. This will benefit practitioners to group players by maturity to identify higher injury risk and implement injury prevention strategies. Future research may replicate this study with a larger sample size across multiple seasons and clubs to increase validity and reliability.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Status:	Published
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV0557 Sports
School/Department:	School of Science, Technology and Health
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/13070

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