Soccer-Players “Sportomics” Analysis for Future Injury-Prevention Biosensor Development

This study explores two complementary approaches for injury analysis in football players, with the ultimate goal of developing a non-invasive, real-time biosensing system for injury prevention. A total of 138 sweat samples were collected from 12 athletes of the Italian U18 Serie C team Benevento Calcio. In modern sports, maximizing athletes' performance while minimizing injury risk is crucial. To this end, various technologies have been proposed, including biosensors, flexible sensors and Inertial Measurement Units. This work contributes by investigating the metabolic signatures most closely associated with injury events. Due to the time-consuming nature of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) analysis, Free Induction Decay (FID) signals were also employed to assess their potential for faster screening. Metabolomic analysis revealed significant alterations in amino acid metabolism, with additional involvement of folate metabolism, the urea cycle, and levels of leucine and propionate, all of which may reflect the athletes' physiological stress and recovery states. Furthermore, clustering analysis based on a seven-feature extraction from FID signals showed promising results, highlighting the feasibility of integrating this methodology into future large-scale studies.