Artificial turf in football: An injury perspective

This chapter begins by exploring the epidemiological evidence surrounding injury occurrence in terms of its nature and location. It examines musculoskeletal injury at specific sites (foot, ankle, knee, lower back and head), and also examines the non-musculoskeletal injury including skin abrasion and infection, carcinogenic risk and airway irritation. The chapter explores extrinsic factors that may influence injury risk on artificial turf including: shoe–surface interface, using both artificial and natural turf interchangeably, volume of exposure to artificial turf, climate, and football code. It ends by drawing together some key observations, future directions and concluding remarks. Finally, the chapter interchangeably uses the terms synthetic turf/surface, artificial turf/surface, football turf/surface for artificial playing surfaces and referred to as artificial turf (AT) within this context.