@Article{Klačar2026,
journal="Biology of Sport",
issn="0860-021X",
year="2026",
title="Examining the severity of knee ligament and thigh muscle match injury types across various climate zones in European football leagues",
abstract=" We investigated regional patterns of injury types and severity in five male professional football leagues across Europe. Retrospective data from the 2022/2023  season from the Premier League (England), Bundesliga (Germany), La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), and Ligue 1 (France) were analysed. The injury information was collected via a professional database, including injury types, specifically for the four main knee ligaments and thigh muscles, time, and location of the match injuries. Data of 3020 players, with an average of 30.82 (SD±3.6) players per team and a mean age of 25.7 (SD±4.6) years, were analysed with the Köppen– Geiger climate classification. Clubs were classified according to climate zones as northern and southern zones. Estimated match injury incidence was 15.82 injuries per 1000 exposure hours overall, with league-specific values of 13.50 in the Bundesliga (95% CI: 11.46–15.55), 16.06 in Serie A (95% CI: 14.03–18.09), 16.96 in La Liga (95% CI: 14.89–19.03), 15.84 in Ligue 1 (95% CI: 13.76–17.91), and 16.29 in the Premier League (95% CI: 14.29–18.28). The Kruskal–Wallis test showed a statistically significant difference in knee ligament injury frequency between northern and southern climate zones (H = 6.144, p = 0.013, ε2  = 0.005). This was confirmed by the Mann–Whitney U test (U = 135,722, Z = -2.48, p = 0.013, r = 0.07), with northern clubs showing a higher mean rank (585.39) than southern clubs (546.79). However, the effect size indicated a very small effect. In conclusion, the findings suggest regional differences in knee ligament injury frequency and seasonal injury distribution, but they should be interpreted as exploratory and do not demonstrate a  causal effect of climate zone on injury risk. ",
author="Klačar, Slobodan
and Chamari, Karim
and Tabben, Montassar
and Likić, Slavenko
and Hue, Olivier",
pages="225--237",
doi="10.5114/biolsport.2027.165054",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.5114/biolsport.2027.165054"
}