Abstract

Aim. To examine the incidence of injuries in Indian elite male field hockey players and to broaden the current base of knowledge by identifying the injury rates of different playing positions. 
Methods. A total of 252 Indian elite male field hockey players from Punjab state, India aged 10 to 30 years, played at district, university, state and national levels were selected. A pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was applied to gather necessary information. Subsequently the data was analyzed with SPSS (version 17.0).
Results. As far as playing positions are concerned, players of forward position considered more vulnerable to injury (37.69%) followed by defenders (30.55%), midfielders (24.20%) and goalkeepers (7.54%). The commonest type of injury among all field hockey players was contusion (29.76%) followed by sprains (13.49%), tendinopathy (11.90%) and hematoma (10.71%). Lower limb was reported to be most affected part (42.86%) so far area of injury was concerned. The district level (31.35%) players were more prone to injury compared to state (26.20%), national (23.01%) and university level players (19.44%).
Conclusions. Indian elite male field hockey players with forward position were more vulnerable than the players with other positions due to increased athlete contact and quick movement requirements.