RT journal article
T1 The Effect of the COVID-19 Lockdown on the Position-Specific Match Running Performance of Professional Football Players; Preliminary Observational Study
A1 Sekulic, Damir
A1 Versic, Sime
A1 Decelis, Andrew
A1 Castro Piñero, José
A1 Javorac, Dejan
A1 Dimitric, Goran
A1 Idrizovic, Kemal
A1 Jukic, Igor
A1 Modric, Toni
A2 Didáctica de la Educación FísicaPlástica y Musical
K1 SARS-CoV-2
K1 match running performance
K1 soccer
K1 match demands
AB The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted professional football in the 2019/2020 season, and football experts anticipate that the consequences of lockdown measures will negatively affect the physical performance of players once competition restarts. This study aimed to evaluate position-specific match running performance (MRP) to determine the effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on the physical performance of professional football players. Players' MRPs (n = 124) were observed in matches before and after the COVID-19 lockdown in the 2019/2020 season of the highest level of national competition in Croatia and were classified according to player position: central defenders (CD; n = 42), fullbacks (FB; n = 20), midfielders (MF; n = 46), and forwards (FW; n = 16). The MRPs were measured using Global Positioning System, and included the total distance covered, low-intensity running (& LE;14.3 km/h), running (14.4-19.7 km/h), high-intensity running (& GE;19.8 km/h), total accelerations (> 0.5 m/s(2)), high-intensity accelerations (> 3 m/s(2)), total decelerations (less than -0.5 m/s(2)), and high-intensity decelerations (less than -3 m/s(2)). The results indicated that, in matches after the COVID-19 lockdown, (i) CDs and FBs featured lower running and high-intensity running (t-value: from 2.05 to 3.51; all p < 0.05; moderate to large effect sizes), (ii) MFs covered a greater distance in low-intensity running and achieved a lower number of total accelerations, and total and high-intensity decelerations (t-value: from -3.54 to 2.46; all p < 0.05, moderate to large effect sizes), and (iii) FWs featured lower high-intensity running (t-value = 2.66, p = 0.02, large effect size). These findings demonstrate that the physical performances of football players from the Croatian first division significantly decreased in matches after the COVID-19 lockdown. A combination of inadequate adaptation to football-specific match demands and a crowded schedule after the competition was restarted most likely resulted in such an effect.
PB MDPI
SN 1660-4601
YR 2021
FD 2021-11
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/26153
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/26153
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 12-nov-2026