Table 1

Relationship between external workloads and risk of injury in elite rugby league players

Risk factorsRelative risk (95% CI)
TransientTime lostMissed matches
Injury history in the previous season (no vs yes)1.4 (0.6 to 2.8)0.7 (0.4 to 1.4)0.9 (0.2 to 4.1)
Total distance (≤3910 vs >3910 m)0.6 (0.3 to 1.4)0.5 (0.2 to 1.1)1.1 (0.2 to 6.0)
Very low intensity (≤542 vs >542 m)0.6 (0.2 to 1.3)0.4 (0.2 to 0.9)*0.4 (0.1 to 2.8)
Low intensity (≤2342 vs >2342 m)0.5 (0.2 to 1.1)0.5 (0.2 to 0.9)*1.2 (0.2 to 5.5)
Moderate intensity (≤782 vs >782 m)0.4 (0.2 to 1.1)0.5 (0.2 to 1.0)0.5 (0.1 to 2.3)
High intensity (≤175 vs >175 m)0.8 (0.2 to 3.1)0.9 (0.3 to 3.4)2.9 (0.1 to 16.5)
Very high intensity (≤9 vs >9 m)2.7 (1.2 to 6.5)*0.7 (0.3 to 1.6)0.6 (0.1 to 3.1)
Total high intensity (≤190 vs >190 m)0.5 (0.1 to 2.1)1.8 (0.4 to 7.4)0.7 (0.1 to 30.6)
Mild acceleration (≤186 vs >186 m)0.2 (0.1 to 0.4)†0.5 (0.2 to 1.1)1.5 (0.3 to 8.6)
Moderate acceleration (≤217 vs >217 m)0.3 (0.1 to 0.6)†0.4 (0.2 to 0.9)*1.4 (0.3 to 7.5)
Maximum acceleration (≤143 vs >143 m)0.4 (0.2 to 0.8)*0.5 (0.2 to 0.9)*1.8 (0.4 to 8.8)
Repeated high-intensity effort bouts (≤3 vs >3 bouts)0.9 (0.4 to 2.0)1.6 (0.8 to 3.3)1.0 (0.2 to 4.4)
  • All injuries were classified as a transient (no training missed), time loss (any injury resulting in missed training) or a missed match (any injury resulting in a subsequent missed match) injury. *p<0.05; †p<0.01.

  • Reproduced from Gabbett and Ullah.26