Every year > 600,000 sports- and recreation-related eye injuries occur [1]. About 42,000 of these are of a severity that requires emergency room attention, with roughly 13,500 of these resulting in permanent loss of sight. Emergency rooms in the USA treat a sports-related ocular injury every 13 min. Playing games are responsible for anywhere between 10% and 20% of all ocular injuries.

Football ocular injury is an important eye health problem in Europe and probably worldwide.

Closed globe injuries account for most sports-related eye injuries. The anterior segment is the portion of the eye most frequently damaged by blunt trauma, and hyphaema is the most common mode of clinical presentation [2]. The extent of ocular damage depends on the size, hardness, and velocity of the blunt object, and the force imparted directly to the eye. A direct blow to the globe from a blunt object smaller than the eye’s orbital opening causes rapid anteroposterior compression and dilation of the middle of the globe, transmitting a great force to the internal ocular structures. A blunt object larger than the orbital opening (> 5 cm in diameter) exerts force on the floor of the orbit or the medial wall, resulting in fractures of the thin bones. This ‘pressure-release valve’ may prevent rupture of the globe; however, there is a high incidence of occult internal ocular injuries [3].

Examples of blunt injuries include orbital blowout fracture, orbital and lid contusions, iris injury, traumatic iritis, subconjunctival haemorrhage, hyphaema, retinal haemorrhage, commotio retinae, vitreous haemorrhage, choroidal rupture, retinal tears, and retinal detachment.

Open-globe injuries are relatively uncommon. Such injuries range from mild abrasions to serious lacerations.