The Drake Football Study

This Animated Video provides an overview of the protocol of the Drake Football Study, the most comprehensive study to-date to monitor the long-term health of professional football (soccer) players.

Led by Vincent Gouttebarge (Chief Medical Officer at FIFPRO) and Gino Kerkhoffs (Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Amsterdam University Medical Centers), in collaboration with The Drake Foundation, the epidemiological study will look at the musculoskeletal, neurocognitive, cardiovascular and mental health trends of male and female professional footballers over their pre- and post-retirement years. Data will be collected for at least 10 years. It is hoped the results will allow health professionals to better understand the impact that football has on players’ short- and long-term health, and will ultimately lead to new prevention and management strategies to support the health of current and retired players, as well as wider society.

Discover more about the Drake Football Study at https://www.drakefootballstudy.org

Original publication:

Monitoring the health of transitioning professional footballers: protocol of an observational prospective cohort study
Vincent Gouttebarge, Thor Einar Andersen, Charlotte Cowie, Edwin Goedhart, Harald Jorstad, Simon Kemp, Marsh Königs, Mario Maas, Emmanuel Orhant, Jussi Rantanen, Jari Salo, Luis Serratosa, Keith Stokes, Johannes L Tol, Evert Verhagen, Alexis Weber & Gino Kerkhoffs
BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine (2019) http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2019-000680