Rise in injuries furrows brows
January 21 2010
Rugby Players' Association chief executive Damian Hopley admits he is alarmed at the significant increase in the number of injuries picked up by players in the 2008-09 season.
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) released the England rugby injury and training audit, which found that there was a 20 per cent increase last season in the likelihood of players picking up injuries.
The report found that 769 injuries were recorded by Guinness Premiership clubs last year - an average of two per club per game.
It is the first year that the annual audit has reported an increase in the number of injuries since it was established in 2002.
RFU director of elite rugby Rob Andrew has voiced his concern about the number of injuries incurred by players and Hopley admits he is worried about players' futures.
Hopley, who took part in the audit's research, said: "My worry is what happens to players long term.
"Of course there's a concern about injuries. Any spike in statistics raises alarm bells."
The audit commission used information gathered from medical staff at Premiership clubs and opta data.
The number of hamstring and knee ligament injuries has risen sharply, while the number of retirements because of injury has caused alarm among the commission.
Hopley believes more research must be done to help determine why so many injuries are being picked up.
"The findings reinforce the requirement for further research into acceptable levels of workload and demands made of rugby players by the modern elite game," said Hopley.
"This commitment to further research, seeking to investigate the underlying causes of the rise in injuries, will be crucial in ensuring we continue to optimally manage our players' health, protection and welfare effectively."
Phil Winstanley, rugby director at Premier Rugby, has urged the International Rugby Board (IRB) to lobby other nations to conduct similar audits to find out the scale of rugby injuries across the world.
"It's absolutely essential that we work with the IRB and other unions to create and compile more data," said Winstanley.
"We saw in the early part of the summer with the number of injuries in Wales that this is not just an English problem, it affects other parts of the world as well.
"The problem at the moment is that we don't have the data to make there comparison," he said.
"It's essential that we understand the scale of injuries across the world."