The role of injury in athletic burnout among professional football players

Objective: Sport psychology is becoming increasingly prominent among competitive athletes. Athletes who have a professional contract are involved in 2-3 training sessions per day, which means approximately 20-24 hours of intensive training per week. This level of physical and mental strain increases the risk of injury. The current research aimed to measure the impact of injury on the mental health of professional athletes. Methods: We set our research question as follows: is there an observed relationship between injury severity and the mental and physical strain of rehabilitation and does this influence whether the athlete experiences symptoms of burnout? In our survey, the athletic Burnout Questionnaire was used to detect the level of burnout and self-designed questions were applied to detect the characteristics of injury (e.g. consequences, length of rehabilitation). The study involved competitive athletes (N=100) above the age of 14. Jamovi 2.3.28 software was applied for data analysis using Mann-Whitney tests and crosstabulation analysis. Results: The study confirmed an observable relationship between athletic burnout and the characteristics of injury. We could not detect a notable difference in the level of burnout between athletes with and without injuries. Conclusions: With these results, we would like to contribute to the physical and mental recovery of athletes to support their return as soon as possible, as motivated and mentally strong as possible.