400 Section - An Injury Profile of Professional Box Lacrosse Players

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

6:00 PM - 7:30 PM PT

Presenting Author/Autor expositor(s)

CF

Courtney Frengopoulos, MD

Resident, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Co-Author/Coautor(s)

EK

Emily Kenyon, MS

Head Therapist
Toronto Rock
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
DL

David Levy, MD

Associate Clinical Professor, Family Medicine
McMaster University
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
MC

Mark Currie, MS

Research Assistant
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Celina Lin, MD, FRCPC, Dip. Sport Med

Physician
Hamilton Health Sciences and Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Objectives : There is currently a lack of data describing incidence and type of injuries that occur in professional box lacrosse athletes. Primary objective is to describe the rates of injuries and illnesses in a cohort of male professional box lacrosse players over the course of a full season and to calculate the injury burden in terms of injuries per 1000 athlete exposures (AEs) across games and practices. The secondary objective of this study was to compare injury incidence data across age groups, position, non-lacrosse occupation and amount of AE to determine if differences existed.

Design: A prospective cohort study was undertaken in professional box lacrosse players competing in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) during the 2024-2025 season. Injury data was collected by the medical team in accordance with the STROKE-SIS methodology, as outlined by the International Olympic Committee.

Results: Thirty-three players were included in the study (mean age 27.97 ± 4.53 years). There were 84 injuries during the season, with 24 (28%) being time loss and 19 (22%) being game loss injuries; a total of 87 games were missed. Average number of injuries per player was 2.55 ± 1.75. There were 34.4 injuries per 1000 AEs, or 9.83 time loss injuries per 1000 AEs. Most injuries were sustained as a result of direct participation in sport (n=80, 95.2%). The hip/groin was the most commonly injured body region (n=15, 17.9%), muscle/tendon (n=25, 29.8%) being the most injured tissue type.

Conclusion: This study examined the injury and illness patterns in a men’s professional box lacrosse team over one season. Injuries of the hip/groin, as well as muscle strains and tendinopathies tended to be recurrent. These findings highlight the importance of developing structured injury surveillance systems and tailored injury prevention programs.