• Posted March 11, 2025

Rule Change Reduced Concussion Risk For Soccer Kids

A simple rule change for youth soccer dramatically reduced concussion risk among athletes, a new study says.

Banning or limiting headers -- plays where the head is used to pass or shoot the ball -- is linked to a nearly 26% reduction in soccer-related concussions treated in emergency rooms, researchers are scheduled to report at a meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons in San Diego this week.

“Although not all concussions result from headers, a measurable percentage still do, and it is encouraging to observe a trend indicating a decline in concussion rates," senior researcher Dr. Anikar Chhabra, director of sports medicine at Mayo Clinic Arizona, said in a news release.

About 3.9 million children play organized soccer in the U.S. each year, making it one of the most popular youth sports in America.

Headers have long been associated with concussion risk, so in 2016, the U.S. Soccer Federation banned headers in athletes younger than 10 and limited the time players aged 11 to 13 could practice headers to a half-hour per week, researchers said in background notes.

"We wanted to assess the impact of this policy on our patients," researcher Dr. Eugenia Lin, an orthopedic surgery resident at Mayo Clinic Arizona, said in a news release. "While policies are important, we don't always have the data to determine the effectiveness.”

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, a program of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission that tracks injuries treated in ERs.

Between 2012 and 2015, concussions represented more than 8% of soccer-related injuries treated in ERs, researchers found.

Concussions decreased after the rule change, representing only 6% of soccer-related injuries treated between 2016 and 2023, the data shows.

“While we cannot attribute this reduction solely to policy changes, these data suggest that these regulations may positively impact different age groups and time periods,” Chhabra said.

The data also showed that girls tend to suffer concussions in soccer more often than boys.

Girls had fewer overall soccer-related injuries treated in ERs than boys -- more than 21,000 compared to nearly 38,000 between 2012 and 2023, researchers found.

But about 10% of injuries among girls involved concussions, compared with 6% among boys.

Concussions among both boys and girls were lowest in 2023, at 4% and 8% respectively, researchers found.

By comparison, concussions represented about 8% of soccer-related injuries in boys and nearly 11% in girls in 2012.

“Now that physicians, athletic trainers, coaches and parents understand the long-term implications of concussions, it is crucial to continue refining and reinforcing evidence-based policies that prioritize player safety and injury prevention,” Chhabra said.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on sports-related concussions among kids.

SOURCE: American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, news release, March 10, 2025