RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Injury-prevention priorities according to playing position in professional rugby union players
JF British Journal of Sports Medicine
JO Br J Sports Med
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine
SP 765
OP 775
DO 10.1136/bjsm.2009.066985
VO 45
IS 10
A1 J H M Brooks
A1 S P T Kemp
YR 2011
UL http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/45/10/765.abstract
AB Objective To examine the match injury profile of professional rugby union players by individual playing position. Design 4-season prospective cohort design. Setting 14 English Premiership clubs. Participants 899 professional players. Main outcome measure Incidence of match injury (recorded as the number of injuries/1000 player-hours of match exposure), severity of injury (recorded as the number of days of absence) and days of absence due to injury per 1000 player-hours of match exposure. Assessment of risk factors Injury diagnosis and individual playing position during a match. Results 2484 injuries were reported. While there were no significant differences in the total days of absence as a result of injury between different positions in the forwards and the backs, there were a number of significant differences in injury profile for players in individual playing positions. Although three common body locations caused a high proportion of days of absence due to match injury for forwards (shoulder, knee, ankle/heel) and backs (shoulder, hamstring, knee), there were significant differences in injury profile between individual positions. Conclusions The results clearly demonstrate the need for individual position-specific injury-prevention programmes in rugby union. When devising such programmes, a player's previous injury history should also be taken into account.