Rugby League

A Sports Physiotherapist's Point of View

Efficient injury treatment, injury prevention strategies, and implementation of systems aimed at performance enhancement are the core goals of the physiotherapist. The physiotherapist has an important role in conducting and analyzing musculoskeletal screening procedures.

Contact Injuries

These are more likely to force players out of competition for prolonged periods. The more common contact injuries include muscle contusion, glenhumeral instability, acromioclaviculr joint sprain/dislocation, sternal contusion, brachial neuropraxia, knee and ankle alignment injury, concussion, cervical spine injury, and jaw fracture. Evidence has suggested that a higher number of contact injuries occur at the beginning or end of the season, rather than in the middle. This can be attributed to poor timing in high-speed contact situations, which is the result of a lack of ‘game specific speed’ practice during pre-season contact drills. Contact injuries at the end of the season can be attributed to a mental and/or physical fatigue of the player.

Non-Contact Injuries

These mostly include muscle strains, bone stress conditions and numerous other overuse injuries affecting soft tissues of the lower limb. Most common sites of injury are the groin, lower leg, and posterior thigh musculature. Many of these injuries can be attributed to an increase in load with an insufficient recovery period prior to the next significant load and so on. Well performed, technical lifting is a vital tool to use in treating these problems efficiently. Consistent technical feedback is required to avoid lumbar injury, especially when dealing with developing athletes.

Regular screening to detect soft tissue restriction ‘early’ can be a very useful injury prevention tool. In summary, decreasing injury levels will improve the performance of the team. This is the overall goal of the medical staff.