Abstract
Background: Padel, tennis and squash are racket sports involving repetitive manoeuvres, asymmetrical movements and multiple sprints over short distances. These sports include multiple changes of direction and elements of speed, agility and power. All these factors increase the injury risk in these sports. Objective: The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the epidemiology of injuries across padel, tennis and squash athletes. Study Design: This was a systematic review which included EBSCO, CINAHL, MEDLINE, SPORTDiscus, PubMed, and Scopus as the data sources. After risk of bias and quality assessment 11 articles were included for final review. Results: High prevalence of injuries in padel (85.4%), tennis (39%–46%) and squash (58%) athletes. Injury incidence rate of 3.5–56.6/1000 hours play in tennis and 7.28–14.75/1000 hours of squash exposure. Padel had (44%–49%) tendon and (27%–34%) muscle injuries with most injuries to the elbow (30%–74%). Tennis athletes had (33%–62%) muscle and (11%–38%) ligament injuries with the ankle the most injured (4%–24%). For squash players, muscle (5%–38%) and tendon (23%) injuries were common with most to the ankle (6%–27%). Risk factors across all sports included age, physical demands of the sport and overuse. Conclusion: Injury epidemiology between the sports was similar with muscular and tendon injuries the most common.