In concordance with Goncalves et al. (2011) the research
design selected for this study is a prospective cohort.
Historically, epidemiologic studies examining soccer
injury incidence have been prospective in nature. Previous
methodology utilizing retrospective study design had
many biases, which reduced the validity of risk assessments.
Prospective study design has been shown to be the
most useful method for estimating the risk of injury or
disease, the incidence rate and or relative risk.