Fatigue and Recovery in Football

Abstract

Nowadays, professional football players are generally expected to participate in more matches than before. Therefore, they may occasionally fail to show their best physical performance. Due to intense match schedules, appropriate recovery strategies are neccesitated to reduce post-match fatigue, to optimize the performance as quickly as possible and to minimize the risk of injury.

Football requires some activities such as sprinting, changing direction, jumping, grabbing the ball as well as technical skills like dribbling, passing, shooting the ball. All of these activities lead to fatigue with risks of dehydration, drainage of glycogen storage, muscle injury and mental exhaustion. The amount of fatigue depends on many internal and /or external factors and influences recovery process.

Recovery strategies are complex and many of the proposed methods are still controversial in football. Sleep, hydration, diet and cold water applications are the most evident strategies. Further studies are needed to clarify the factors those leading to and determining the level of fatigue to implement effective and individualized recovery strategies.

Cite this article as: Kiziltoprak S. Fatigue and recovery in football. Turk J Sports Med. 2020;55(2):172-85.