Exploring seasonal and organisational determinants of injury recurrence and burden in Croatian football and handball
Elvir Gosić, Sandro Ugrina · Physiotherapia Croatica · 2026
Background: Sports injuries challenge team sports by affecting athletes’ availability andtraining. Seasonal and organisational factors may influence the occurrence, recurrence,and cumulative burden of injury. The
Aim: of this paper is to explore the associationbetween seasonal and organisational factors and injury recurrence and burden amongCroatian male football and handball players.
Methods: This secondary exploratory analysis included 203 male athletes (114 footballplayers and 89 handball players) competing in national leagues. Analysed variables includedsport type, training volume, season phase, and access to a club physiotherapist.Associations between season phase and injury were analysed using chi-square tests;odds ratios (ORs) and relative risks (RRs) were estimated to explore links between organisationalfactors and recurrent injuries.
Results: Injuries occurred more frequently during the competitive phase of the season(58.9%) compared with the preparatory phase (41.1%) (x²(1)=10.68, p=0.001, OR≈2.05).Teams with access to a physiotherapist reported fewer recurrent injuries (43.9%) comparedwith teams without physiotherapy support (60.0%), corresponding to a 27% lowerrelative risk (RR=0.73), although the difference did not reach statistical
Significance: . Theestimated injury burden ranged between 7 and 11 lost weeks of training or competitionper athlete annually, corresponding to approximately 15–20% of a standard competitiveseason.
Conclusion: The
Findings: suggest that the competitive phase of the season may be associatedwith increased injury risk, while regular physiotherapy support may contributeto reducing injury recurrence and cumulative absence from sport. Continuous physiotherapyinvolvement, workload monitoring, and structured injury surveillance may beimportant for maintaining athlete health and season availability.