Soccer or association football - not matter what you call it, players of the game are more likely to suffer injuries than gymnasts, tennis players and swimmers, researchers said on Thursday.

A study of 203 elite young athletes who were initially questioned when they were aged 8 to16 and followed up 10 years later showed that about 63 percent of soccer players had been injured compared to 28 percent of swimmers.

“The footballers were the ones who experienced more injuries than the rest,” said Professor Nicola Maffulli, of Keele University School of Medicine in England.

More than half the group of athletes were still involved in their sport a decade after the initial poll.

Of the nearly 100 who were not, half said they gave up because of school or work pressure. About 15 percent no longer played because of injury.

Most of the injuries reported by the athletes were to the lower limbs. Tennis players had a higher rate of upper-limb problems and gymnasts had more back problems.

Maffulli and his colleagues Dr. Adam Baxter-Jones and Dr. Alison Grieve said there were various reasons that could account for the higher injury rate among soccer players.

It is a contact sport. The amount of training and the extent of competitive play could also contribute to risk of injury.

“It is possible that it is intrinsic in football that people will experience more injuries than in the other sports,” said Maffulli, who reported the findings in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

“But very few of the athletes had to retire because of their injuries,” he added.

Many of the youngsters questioned in the initial survey were elite athletes but few had sustained the same level of play when they were followed up a decade later.

Only 8 were competing at international level, 6 were taking part in national competitions and 25 played at regional or county level. The remainder were recreational athletes.

“Elite young sport performers who continued to train are at a greater risk of musculoskeletal injury than those who did not. The injuries sustained, though not serious, may interfere with the sporting career of an elite young athlete,” Maffulli added.

SOURCE: Archives of Disease in Childhood, April 2005.