Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: St. Marianna University School of Medicine Professor Emeritus Haruhito Aoki has suggested that adolescent players routinely training on artificial turf for prolonged periods should be carefully monitored even if the turf conforms to new standards.
The Japanese made the suggestion during his presentation “Comparison of injury incidences between natural grass and artificial turf in young soccer players” during the 4th AFC Conference on Science and Football Medicine here on Friday.
Prof. Aoki, who is also a renowned orthopaedic surgeon, said that in recent years artificial turf is used for football both in training and competition in countries in cold weather.
Most studies reported that there were no significant differences between natural grass turf and the artificial turf in the incidence of acute injuries.
However, there are few studies reporting about the long-term influences of artificial turf on the young payer’s body, he said.
These include a case controlled prospective study in an institutional-level FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence setting involving 332 young players of age 12-17 from six teams with a predominant tendency to train on either natural turf or artificial turf.
“There were no significant difference in the incidence of acute injuries between the two surfaces during training and competition.
“However the artificial turf group showed a significantly higher incidence of low back pain during training.
“Early adolescence and prolonged training hours were factors associated to an increased incidence of chronic back pain in the artificial turf group,” he said.