Rugby Injury Research Paper

In grand scheme, little is known about the severity and pattern of injuries in rugby. Rugby has the highest risk per player/hour of injury out of all other sports. Out of the shoulder injuries reported in professional rugby, 51% are caused during a tackle and the shoulder was affected in 65% of all match injuries. The shoulder itself is an unstable joint. In rugby players, this naturally unstable situation is stabilised drastically by well developing the surrounding muscles. There are thirteen muscles that make up the shoulder joint and this biomechanical security provides important stability and protection to the vulnerable and potentially unstable glenohumeral joint. THESIS (

Firstly, in rugby there are two common mechanisms of injury. The first one is forced abduction and external rotation or ABER. Additionally, this mechanism is responsible for 32% of injuries. Moreover, this injury mainly occurs two ways, either in a tackle situation or landing with the ball outstretched scoring a try. The second common mechanism of injury is direct impact. During play, this is usually a direct lateral blow with the arm at the side

The primary mechanism of injury was reported as direct tackling followed by falling onto the arm. The predominant finding was that the bulk of patients showed multiple shoulder pathologies. Furthermore, 75% of these cases presented two or more pathologies. A superior labrum anterior to posterior (SLAP) lesion was evident at arthroscopy in 83% of cases, while rotator cuff tears were evident in 43% of cases. A third of all cases had a Bankart tear, despite none of them reporting previous dislocations, while other labral tears, excluding the SLAP tears, to the inferior or posterior labrum were present in 34% of the