A Review of International Ball Sports Injuries: A Review Study

The present study aimed to investigate the scientific framework of the studies on the injuries of athletes performing ball games and offer a convenient conclusion and more comprehensive and better-classified information compared to previous studies.

The articles published by scientific databases, including Sport Discus, Scopus, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and PubMed, were searched. The searched keywords were sports injuries, volleyball, basketball, handball, soccer, and football.

The present systematic review investigated articles that fulfilled the entry criteria and studied the processes and rates of injuries in the athletes of ball games.Investigations showed that ankle injuries were the most prevalent ones in volleyball, basketball, and handball, while injuries in lower body parts, particularly knees, were commoner in football. It was shown that the majority of the reported injuries occurred during a match. Moreover, excessive training, inconvenient recovery, and rivals’ fouls were the most significant causes of injuries in the investigated sports.

The present study showed that there was a significant difference between the existing studies in terms of the manner of reporting the injuries of athletes in ball games, and this made it difficult to reach appropriate and practical conclusions. Thus, it seems necessary and important to harmonize the characteristics in future studies.