| Summary: | Introduction: Injuries are common in professional soccer and might interfere with the ability of the team and the individual player to perform. Several studies have shown the benefits of exercise as a means to prevent injuries in soccer, but research is needed to substantiate, how injury prevention strategies are best implemented. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe and interpret soccer players’ experience of injury prevention. Method: A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used as described by van Manen. Respondents: Eight professional Danish soccer players were interviewed with open-ended interviews. Results: The players’ lived experience of injury prevention across all the interviews were shown as the interaction between three overreaching themes: (1) being a part of a performance environment, (2) the need for an individual approach and (3) strong personal ambitions. Interaction between the three themes empowered the players to engage in injury prevention. Conclusion: Professional soccer players’ experience of injury prevention can be interpreted within the four components of the empowerment model: (1) impact, (2) competence, (3) meaningfulness and (4) choice. The presence of the four components empowered the players to engage in injury prevention in the soccer club.
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