The relationship of sustainable nutritional awareness and practices with rates and patterns of sports injuries among Iraqi Stars League Players

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the level of sustainable nutritional awareness and practices and analyze their correlation with the rates and patterns of sports injuries. Methodology: Adopting a descriptive correlational approach, the researcher applied a standardized scale and a FIFA-compliant injury surveillance log on a stratified random sample of 260 players from the Iraqi Stars League (2025-2026). Results and Discussion: Results indicated a "moderate" overall level of nutritional culture with a mean score of (29.50/50), showing a notable deficiency in the "Recovery and Fluids" domain. At the same time, muscle injuries dominated with a prevalence of 55.8%. Statistical analyses confirmed a significantly strong negative correlation (r = -0.682, p < 0.05) between nutritional awareness and injury frequency. Furthermore, the Chi-square test (x2 = 12.45, p = 0.002) revealed that players with lower awareness are significantly more prone to physiological injuries due to glycogen depletion and delayed tissue repair. Conclusions: The study recommends mandating the appointment of sports nutritionists as a key licensing requirement to ensure player safety.