Potential head injuries in women's football: Identification of coachable moments

OBJECTIVES: To describe and analyse mechanisms of potential head injuries across a range of playing age-groups during women's European international tournaments and explore whether there were any 'coachable moments' which might prevent a similar incident from being repeated in the future. (NB 'coachable moment' was defined as a player action or behaviour that could be modified through coaching (i.e. it is considered modifiable).) METHODS: This mixed-methods video analysis study reviewed all potential head injuries from the broadcasted match footage from the 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship (WEURO), 2024 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (WU19), and 2024 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship (WU17), including an in-depth independent analysis of 10 potential head injury events by 11 different coders (including professional women players and coaches) to identify any coachable moments. RESULTS: Across the three tournaments, there were 108 potential head injuries (WEURO n = 55, 52.08/1000 match hours (MH); WU19 n = 29, 57.31/1000 MH; WU17 n = 24, 45.45/1000 MH). Positionally, midfielders (excluding wingers) sustained the most potential head injuries (n = 32), followed by centre-backs (n = 26). The most frequently observed mechanism of a potential injury was opponent player-to-head impact (n = 74, 35.41/1000 MH), followed by unintentional ball-to-head impacts (n = 17, 8.13/1000 MH). Coachable moments were identified in all 10 events categorised into five themes: body positioning, awareness, communication, technique, and decision-making. CONCLUSIONS: The identification of coachable moments provides insight into player actions that may contribute to a higher potential head injury risk in women's football. These data could be used to support a player-centric injury prevention approach being embedded into the coaching ecosystem.