# Emerging Technologies for Injury Identification in Sports Settings: A Systematic Review
## 2 Materials and Methods  
This review adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines [12]. The review was registered on the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) before beginning the literature search on 16 November 2024 (Ref No. CRD42024608964). **Search Strategy**  
Preliminary searches were conducted in November 2024 using EndNote (V21.5, Philadelphia, USA) on five databases (Sport Discus, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar). This initial process aided in identifying key search terms used in later stages. The search process was conducted over four stages: (1) Initial preliminary search terms with synonyms and timeline. (2) Agreement and refinement of search term protocol in an attempt to improve results. (3) Final search terms, databases, and timeline agreed by LCD, ED, LR, and MM (November 2024). (4) Recorded database search on the agreed databases. The search terms consisted of: Technology AND Sport injury AND Detection OR Identification, from 2014 until the end of 2024, see Table 1 for sample search terms. **Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria**  
Papers were included in the review if they: (1) were written in English, (2) were conducted on humans of any age, (3) involved an injury in a sport context, or (4) involved an injury identified over the course of the study using the method described. Papers were excluded from this review if they: (1) were not written in English, (2) were not conducted on humans, (3) did not involve an injury during sport participation, (4) retrospectively analysed data to restructure and produce more positive outcomes, (5) did not directly detect injury, but identified risk, load, fatigue, or impact, (6) comprised a review (literature or systematic), or (7) involved a study conducted before 2014. Studies identifying risk factors, conducted prospectively with the intention of identifying risk factors, meaning that the studies were designed with preliminary screening using existing tools, with surveillance, and confirmatory analysis to identify risk factors, were also excluded. Predictive models were excluded as they did not involve direct, real-time detection or confirmatory surveillance of injuries; instead, they estimated risk based on proxy measures (e.g., load, fatigue, impact) without verified injury outcomes, which did not align with the review's focus on confirmed injury detection tools Studies conducted before 2014 were excluded to focus on the rapid development of emerging technologies in the past decade. **Study Selection**  
The study selection process was completed by the research team over three phases. After the initial search protocols were agreed upon, in phase one, LCD screened titles and abstracts. From the initially included papers, a random, numerically selected sample of papers (n = 20) was sent to the research team (LR, ED, MM) for review and quality control protocols. No disagreements were found on the search protocol, and adherence to the set criteria was met. In phase two, LCD screened the full texts of included articles for the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Upon agreement from the team, a decision was made to further refine the criteria of inclusion to remove papers which were retrospective in design and those that did not directly measure injury detection as an outcome, such as protocols which measured athlete load, fatigue, or impact. This decision was made after careful review of initially included studies, where it was found that numerous studies used the term \"injury\" and did not directly address which muscle injury they were focusing on, such as algorithmic or predictive studies. To maintain relevance and clarity in scope, the inclusion criteria were refined to focus solely on studies with direct injury detection as a primary outcome. In phase three, papers were separated and codified using EndNote. The codified papers were independently sent to the research team, which included or excluded papers.