Prospectively collected injury surveillance data are essential for designing and implementing injury prevention programmes. We investigated the incidence, characteristics and patterns of professional football injuries in Qatar, providing details on the most observed injuries' burden. We prospectively recorded individual time-loss injuries and training/match exposure from 17 professional football teams in Qatar during 8 seasons (2014/15 to 2021/22). Injury definitions and data collection procedures followed the 2006 consensus statement and results reported according to the 2020 IOC consensus statement on football injuries and methodology of epidemiological studies on injuries, respectively. In total, 1466 players with 4789 registered injuries were followed. The overall injury burden was 129 [95% CI: 128-130] days/1000 h. Over the 8 seasons there was a significant decreasing trend in the incidence of gradual onset injuries (p = 0.0012) and a non-significant decreasing trend for suddenonset match injuries (p = 0.063). The injury burden for match injuries was greater than the burden resulting from training injuries (460 [95% CI: 460-460] vs 56 [95% CI: 55-57] days/1000 h, p < 0.0001). There was no difference in time loss between index and recurrent injuries. Hamstring muscle strain represented the most frequent injury with a median of 11 (inter-quartile 5-20) days to return to play (RTP). ACL complete tear was the most impactful injury, in term of return to play, with a median of 200 (116-253) days to RTP. Re-injuries constituted 10.8% (4.7% of exacerbations). Mean illness incidence was 1.1 (SD = 0.4) illness/1000 hours, representing 5 illnesses per squad per season, with no variation over time. Qatari professional football is characterized by an overall injury pattern and risk similar to Asian and European norms. There was a significant decreasing trend in the incidence of gradual onset injuries and a non-significant decreasing trend for sudden-onset match injuries.

Objectives: To compare injury incidence, burden and characteristics between the pre- and post-COVID-19 lockdown periods in Qatari professional football. Design: Prospective cohort study. Methods: Injury and exposure data for two post-COVID-19 lockdown periods [early post-lockdown period: shortterm similar to 2 months (54 matches) and late post-lockdown period: long-term 8-months (183 matches)] were compared to the benchmark of the same periods from the three previous seasons (2017/18-2019/20). Results: We observed no difference in overall, training or match incidence between early post-lockdown period and the benchmark reference. However, this short-term period resulted in lower burden for overall- (RR 0.80, P < 0.0001), training- (RR 0.73, P < 0.0001) and match-injuries (RR 0.40, P < 0.0001) compared to the benchmark. During late post-lockdown period match injury incidence (RR 0.72, P = 0.0010) and match injury burden (RR 0.69, P < 0.001) were lower than the benchmark. In contrast, both overall- (RR 1.30, P < 0.001) and training-injury burden (RR 1.65, P < 0.001) were higher. A significant increase in adductor strains in both post-lockdown periods was observed. Conclusions: Immediately after the COVID-19 lockdown (short-term effect), there was no difference in injury incidence but a lower injury burden compared to benchmark. Moreover, the rapid return to competition for the successive season (long-term effect) was associated with a higher overall- and training-injury burden, but a lower match-injury burden compared to the benchmark. (c) 2023 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a potential threat to professional sporting events when they eventually return to their usual calendar with spectators’ capacity of football stadiums usually exceeding 40,000 seats for important events. Hence, a strategy for safe return to sporting events is needed in the COVID-19 pandemic to pave the way towards a new normalcy. We reviewed the guidelines and policies implemented in organising the Amir Cup Football Final of Qatar, which hosted about 20,000 fans. The authors evaluated the publicly available information on the official websites of the various organizations involved and highlight the importance and usefulness of the Covid-19 Rapid Antigen Assay-Kit as a tool for screening sports spectators as well as the importance of a rigorous spectator pathway, including their accurate traceability thanks to a specific mobile phone application. Despite the surging of COVID-19 all over the world, a big football event with around 20,000 spectators in the same stadium has been hosted under strongly controlled preventative measures. These preventative measures show that it is possible to organize a major football match held outdoors, with the presence of thousands of supporters. This article is a call for action for the organisers of such events where the supporters’ health status is traceable to provide the scientific community with actual data of post-event infection rates. Therefore, it is suggested to consider using procedures like the ones described in the present article as a potential model in the process of organizing big sporting events with spectators in times of COVID-19.

This study aimed to assess the effects of the lunar cycle on diurnal variation of biological, i.e, hormonal, biochemical, and hematological, profiles of diurnally active healthy men. Blood samples of 20 males were collected on four occasions [full moon (FM) and new moon (NM), in the morning (06:00-07:00 h) and evening (19:00-20:00 h)]. The results showed that melatonin and testosterone levels and neutrophils count were lower during the FM as compared to the NM in the morning (p d = 4.13, p d = 3.84, p d = 0.77, respectively) and evening (p d = 6.36, p d = 4.03, p d = 1.07, respectively) samples. However, cortisol level was higher during the FM compared to the NM, in the morning (p d = 0.74) and evening (p d = 3.54). Hemoglobinemia was higher only in the evening during the FM compared to the evening of the NM (p d = 1.22). In summary, this study confirmed that lunar cycle can affect human biological parameters independently of time of day.

Background: With increasing number of international travellers taking flights and the need of stringent quarantine regulations across the globe in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become a mandatory requirement for many airlines and countries to have a COVID-19 RT-PCR Negative certificate for travellers within a time-specific period prior to boarding flights. Method: As the demand for RT-PCR testing in this group of asymptomatic well individuals who are planning to travel is increasing, they present to COVID testing centres for their swab tests, where suspected COVID patients also attend, thereby increasing the risk of exposure of these healthy people to possibly infected individuals. Hence, the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) in Qatar implemented “Drive-Thru” swabbing hubs to address this potential issue. We analysed the usefulness of this MOPH initiative and how it has helped tackle the challenge. Results and Conclusion: With a reduced risk of exposure for travellers to potentially suspected COVID-19 patients in COVID centres, the “Drive-Thru” swabbing hubs have been a pragmatic, welcome and wonderful initiative. This has contributed to curb the spread of COVID-19 by facilitating easy testing thereby alleviating anxiety in travellers as well as reducing the burden of an exponentially increasing number of travellers presenting to COVID centres.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the diurnal variation of short term maximal performance and biological markers of hormonal [cortisol (CRT), testosterone (TST), melatonin (MLT)], biochemical [creatine phosphokinase (CPK), blood glucose (GLC), uric acid (UA)] and hematological [white blood cells (WBC), monocytes (MO), neutrophils (NE), lymphocytes (LY), red blood cells (RBC), hemoglobin (HB), hematocrit (HMT)] parameters in male police officers. Methods: Twenty male police officers performed a running-based anaerobic sprint test (RAST) at two different times of the day (TOD), in the morning (6:00 h - 7:00 h) and evening (19:00 - 20:00) where blood samples were collected from the participants on these two occasions before each exercise session. Results: Short term maximal performance [Peak power (PP), average power (AP) and minimal power (MP)] was higher in the evening as compared to the morning. It was noted that biological markers of hormonal, biochemical and hematological parameters exhibit diurnal fluctuation. Some of them peak in the morning (MLT, CRT, TST, UA, RBC, HB, and HMT) and others peak in the evening (GLC, CPK, WBC, NE, LY, and MO). Conclusions: Short term maximal performance, hormonal, biochemical and hematological parameters were strongly affected by the TOD in police officers. Thus, understanding changes in short term maximal exercice and these circulating mediators during different TOD provide a better understanding of the anaerobic metabolism and could help modulate and quantify training load.

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of the lunar cycle and time of day on short-term maximal performance, wellness and mood state. Twenty healthy active men performed a running anaerobic sprint test (RAST) at four sessions (full moon (FM) and new moon (NM) in the morning and in the evening). Before each testing session, participants completed a rating scale of mood states (POMS) and a psychometric rating scale of perceived wellness (Hooper’s questionnaire). Rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was collected just after the RAST. A higher rating of sleep was observed in FM compared to NM upon the morning and the evening (FM morning vs. NM morning, p < .01; d = 1.38) and (FM evening vs. NM evening, p < .001; d = 2.62). POMS subscales data revealed no significant lunar cycle effect. Peak power (PP), average power (AP) and minimal power (MP) were greater in the evening following NM compared to FM (NM evening vs. FM evening, p< .01, <0.01, <0.05; d = 0.77, = 0.78, = 0.68, respectively). Likewise, RAST performance was greater in the evening compared to the morning for both lunar cycle phases (FM evening vs. FM morning, p< .001, <0.01, <0.01; d = 1.08, = 1, = 0.85) and (NM evening vs. NM morning, p< .001, <0.01, <0.01; d= 1.08, = 1, = 0.85), respectively, for PP, AP, and MP. RPE was higher in the FM evening compared to the NM evening and in the FM morning compared to the NM morning (p < .001, <0.001; d = 1.38, = 2.18, respectively). These results suggest that the lunar cycle and time of day might affect short-term maximal performance with better performance on NM evening associated with a greater perception of sleep quality compared to FM.Abbreviations: AP: Average power; FM: full moon; MP: Minimal power; NM: new moon; RAST: Running anaerobic sprint test; RPE: Rating of perceived exertion; POMS: Rating scale of mood states; PP: Peak power