The present focus of the medical profession and of physiotherapy in sports

medicine is to treat sports injuries and overload syndromes due to sports. In

sports medicine, usually surgical and rehabilitation issues are handled.

According to the European Association for Injury Prevention and Safety

Promotion (EuroSafe), about 6.1 million people in Europe are treated in hospitals

for a sports injury annually. About 420,000 of these cases have to be

admitted for further treatment. The estimated number of hospital-treated

sports injuries is 2.5 million in team ball sports, followed by 500,000 cases in

ice or snow sports and the same number in acrobatic sports. Sixty per cent of

sports injuries result from participation in organised sports. The number of

sports injuries is increasing, probably due to increased participation in sports

(EuroSafe, Injuries in the European Union, Report on injury statistics 2008–

2010, Amsterdam, 2013, ISBN: 978-90-6788-464-8).

Medical treatment due to overload in sports currently lacks statistical analysis.

Overload frequently results in a need for medical treatment or leads to injury.

Very popular sports such as football and alpine skiing are particularly relevant

because of the injury frequency. The treatment costs are socioeconomically

important.

Individual suffering and remaining disabilities after injury are a tragic

aspect. Athlete downtime in competitive sports weakens the teams and affects

athletes’ careers.

It is therefore important to consider prevention more carefully in the

future. The Sports Committee of ESSKA has set itself the task to discuss and

to describe the main aspects of prevention. Prevention of injury and overuse

in sports is not exclusively in the competence of physicians and physiotherapists.

Therefore, the Sports Committee has partnered with a large group of

experienced sports scientists, physiotherapists with experience in highperformance

sports and coaches from high-performance sports to deliver this

book on the prevention of injury and overuse in sports. This book cannot defi -

nitely answer all the questions on prevention. However, it should pave the

way in cooperative prevention research as a directory for physicians, sports

scientists and physiotherapist coaches.