Differences in cortisol concentrations on match day in elite- international football players: starters vs non starters

Abstract

Objective: The hormone cortisol participates in situations of physiological and behavioral responses, preparing the body to act in a time of stress of a physical, insecure nature, or as is the sports competition, in this way, it is intended as the main objective to analyze the responses of cortisol of 20 players (starters and no starters) of international level during a match day.

Method: During the 2018 Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup in Russia, 20 players from a national team were selected to obtain an individualized profile of the players, analyzed during the match day, by salivary analysis in the first 30 minutes after waking up (8.00 am). For the statistical analysis of differences between groups, t-student (Group: headlines / non-headlines) × 1 (Time: baseline) was used.

Results: With the results obtained, we observed an increase in the Awakening Response of Cortisol depending on whether the players played as starters or started as no starters, there being a significant difference (p = 0.005; P = 0.105) between both groups.

Conclusions: A differentiated profile was observed, with a difference in cortisol increase in the starting players, and may be due to an increase in the pre-competitive tension of their own, in many cases necessary to face the competition.