Four-year match injury surveillance in male Welsh professional Rugby Union teams

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Author
Bitchell, Charlotte
Mathema, Prabhat
Moore, Isabel
Date
2019-12-04Acceptance date
2019-12-03
Type
Article
Publisher
Elsevier
ISSN
1466-853X
1873-1600 online
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Objectives
To report match injury incidence, burden and mechanism over a four-year period in professional male Welsh Regional Rugby Union. Design: Descriptive; Longitudinal. Setting: Welsh Regional Rugby Union. Participants: Four Welsh Regional male Rugby Union teams. Main Outcome Measures: All time-loss injuries sustained between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2016. Incidence (injuries/1000 h), severity (mean and median days lost per injury), burden (days-lost/1000 h) and proportions (%) were calculated. Results: The overall injury incidence and burden was 99.1 injuries/1000 h and 2570.3 days-lost/1000 h. Concussion represented the highest incidence and burden of all specific injuries, with increases in burden from 2012/13 (86.5 days-lost/1000 h) to 2015/16 (302.4 days-lost/1000 h). Acromio-clavicular (AC) joint injuries increased in burden from 2012/13 to 2015/16 (71.3 vs 130.6 days-lost/1000 h). However, anterior thigh haematomas decreased in incidence (8.2 vs 2.4 injuries/1000 h) and burden (48.6 vs 17.7 days lost/1000 h) across the same period. Tackle events contributed to the highest proportion of match injuries (being tackled: 20–31%, tackling: 30–42%). Conclusions: Injury incidence was higher than previously reported for professional Rugby Union. Decreases in anterior thigh haematoma and increases in concussion and AC joint injuries were shown, identifying a change in contact-related match injury risk.
Journal/conference proceeding
Physical Therapy in Sport;
Citation
Bitchell, C.L., Mathema, P. and Moore, I.S. (2020) Four-year match injury surveillance in male Welsh professional Rugby Union teams. Physical Therapy in Sport, 42, pp.26-32.
Description
Article published in Physical Therapy in Sport available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2019.12.001
Sponsorship
KESS; Welsh Rugby Union
Collections
- Sport Research Groups [1089]
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