Introduction: There is paucity of research regarding the incidence of hamstring injuries and its inherent causes within youth Malaysian football contexts. We aim to investigate the incidence of hamstring injuries among youth footballers and analyse the risk between intrinsic risk variables (anthropometric and hip strength) and the risk of hamstring strain injuries (HSI). Materials and methods: This was a prospective cohort study involving 72 youth Malaysian professional footballers from a single prestigious club. This study was conducted during the 2023 Malaysian football league. Pre-season medical evaluations encompassed demographic information, anthropometric measurements, and isometric strength examinations of the hamstrings, quadriceps, hip abductors, and hip adductors. Injury surveillance was conducted during the season. Results: The incidence of HSI in this study was 0.331 injuries per 1000 H, with incidence of injury during match higher 2.79 injuries per 1000 H compared to training 0.216 injuries per 1000 H. There was no hamstring injuries reported in U20. Forty-one (56.9%) has hamstring to quadriceps (H:Q) ratio <0.6 and forty-six (63.9%) has hip abductor to adductor ratio <0.8. The binary logistic regression analysis revealed increasing age (OR: 1.227, CI: 0.98 – 5.03), increased body mass index (OR: 1.79, CI: 0.415 – 7.77), increased body fat mass (OR: 1.39, CI: 0.33 – 5.89), and low H:Q ratio (OR: 4.274, CI: 0.347 – 58.1), increase the risk of HSI. Conclusion: Injury prevention programs in youth footballers should incorporate these modifiable risk factors into account to reduce the risk of hamstring injuries.

Aims: To investigate the influence of carbon sources and additives/surfactants on the mycelium growth and exopolysaccharides (EPS) production, including the morphology during submerged cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus in the minimal-medium as the base medium. Methodology and results: Pleurotus ostreatus was cultivated in different types of carbon sources to investigate the effects of carbon sources to mycelium growth and changes of mycelium morphology which directly affects the synthesis of EPS. In addition, additives or surfactants can increase the bioavailability of less soluble substrates in the cultured medium for the mycelium growth and indirectly affects the EPS production. In this study, the cultivation of P. ostreatus in the minimal-medium by using glucose as the carbon source with the addition of lecithin at 1% (w/v) gave the highest EPS production 4.53 ± 0.30 g/L, an increase of about 89.53% when compared to the cultivation without the addition of lecithin. Addition of lecithin changes morphology of the pellets outer layer and under microscope showing a dense hyphal network surrounding the pellets with the sizes of micro pellets almost 0.5-1.5 mm which contributed to the increase of EPS production after 14 days cultivation at 26 °C Conclusion, significance and impact of study The choice of the carbon source should not only be for high productivity rate of mycelium growth and EPS production, but a cheaper alternative source should also be considered. In conclusion, high mycelium biomass and EPS production was achieved either by changes of the morphology through the type of carbon source and addition of additives such as lecithin.