Thornley on injuries (Deccie responds)

andrewdcs

Came across the response before reading the initial article.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2010/1026/1224282004243.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/rugby/2010/1029/1224282281363.html

Think Thornley make some good points about medical staff turnover and gaps in spotting things. He's done his homework, I'd imagine his article was as much a 'leak' from some disgruntled / concerned periphery aide de camp as his own investigative journalism.
Risky work as he won't get much access if he rattles the managment structure, and God forbid Gerry goes the way of Stephen Jones!

JustinDee

Players amazingly getting injured playing rugby union.
Fancy that.

andrewdcs

JustinDee wrote: »

Players amazingly getting injured playing rugby union.
Fancy that.

Eh yeah, strong element of dog bites man I suppose, but the article and rejoinder from Kidney was about standards of player care, which is interesting given Englands issues last few seasons and their inquiries into it.

Thanks all the same for the input. :rolleyes:

JustinDee

andrewdcs wrote: »

Thanks all the same for the input. :rolleyes:

Was just my honest personal opinion about the piece.

Podge_irl

JustinDee wrote: »

Players amazingly getting injured playing rugby union.
Fancy that.

Thornley's point is pretty clearly that he thinks players are being rushed back after injury, not that it's odd they're getting injured in the first place.

In a competitive, and in essence money-driven, sport things like this will always be pushed to the limit, but I highly doubt medical teams are letting players back before they're ready. Recurrent injuries certainly seem odd to us, but I'm no medical professional.

CatFromHue

for the first half of the article i didnt think he was going anywhere.

i think it was a south african study that found that for most pro rugby teams one third of the squad are unavailable at any time through injury.

even for lions tours for example for the last test touring squad is very much depleted.

he does seem to be pointing to some strange things happening in irish rugby last season though.

the whole darcy situation is worrying. it wasnt apparent last season but he did say at the start of this season that he was encourgaed to play through the pain barrier with a groin injury.

but then the whole palyer management scheme doesnt fit with players being rushed back.

it is early days in the season though, no one will be able to tell until march if there is something a miss

JustinDee

CatFromHue wrote: »

the whole darcy situation is worrying. it wasnt apparent last season but he did say at the start of this season that he was encourgaed to play through the pain barrier with a groin injury.

Contrarily, I actually remember him not being happy about being left out at the start of this season.

irishbucsfan

JustinDee wrote: »

Contrarily, I actually remember him not being happy about being left out at the start of this season.

He was playing through the pain barrier last year.

He mentioned that at the start of this season around the same time he was complaining at being left out. He said he was fully fit for the first time in a while because he was forced to play through the pain barrier.

thomond2006

Did anyone else see the thread title and think 'ROG vs Kevin Myers Mark II'? :pac:

danthefan

Flannery has managed to injure himself over and over and over again over the last 18 months or so, is he being brought back too early each time?

D'Arcy said himself he wasn't in a good way at the end of last season, could barely train and was getting injections just to get through matches. The Scotland game in the 6N, he was blatantly injured and yet left on the field for the entire 80 mins.

phog

Will we ever know the full truth about a player's injury or his desire to rush back or maybe to stay out for a bit longer to ensure he heals properly.

Is the player saying, I'm fine let me back, the provinces rushing him back for an important game or the national team looking for them to be back playing competitive games before the internationals?

Even during games we all seen players insisting they're okay to stay on rather than head for an early shower.

Goodluck2me

It might be of interest to some on here the article in indo/times about players lying about concussions to get back playing more quickly, interesting read.

Podge_irl

Goodluck2me wrote: »

It might be of interest to some on here the article in indo/times about players lying about concussions to get back playing more quickly, interesting read.

I'm pretty sure with any kind of head injury they have to do cognitive tests. The ole "lying about concussion" routine is out of date at this point.

Ian_K

Podge_irl wrote: »

I'm pretty sure with any kind of head injury they have to do cognitive tests. The ole "lying about concussion" routine is out of date at this point.

Is it though? From what i could see Darcy was KO'd against Munster recently but they couldnt admit to it as he would have missed their two Heineken cup games.

CatFromHue

i think the point about the cognitive tests are that some players mighten try too hard on them in the first place. this is here say of course but they dont sound too full proof.

irishbucsfan

Cognitive tests aren't 100% accurate. Concussions can be missed.

Podge_irl

Ian_K wrote: »

Is it though? From what i could see Darcy was KO'd against Munster recently but they couldnt admit to it as he would have missed their two Heineken cup games.

There is no mandatory rest period after a concussion anymore.

Cognitive tests aren't 100% accurate.

Nothing is.

Goodluck2me

Podge_irl wrote: »

I'm pretty sure with any kind of head injury they have to do cognitive tests. The ole "lying about concussion" routine is out of date at this point.

A think a lot of the player purposely do poorly on them at the start of the season so they have less of a gap to bridge if they are in the situation.