Meta-analysis: fatigue does not increase lower-limb injury risk

This study sought to resolve a long-standing debate in the literature about whether or not fatigue causes lower-limb injury. For the purposes of this research, fatigue was considered chronically (time of the season) and acutely (game time). From a possible 1349 (727 after duplicated removed) articles identified that related to lower-limb musculoskeletal injuries, 15 met inclusion criteria, which provided 21 data sets. A meta-analysis on the available data sets determined that neither acute nor chronic fatigue had any influence on the likelihood of sustaining an injury to the lower limb. Additionally, this research demonstrated that injury researchers have not traditionally reported adequate details to allow secondary analysis of injury statistics. Of the 727 papers identified, over 700 failed to provide the level of detail of the injury circumstances to understand when in a season or game the injury occurred and/or where on the body the injury was sustained.