Ireland's extensive injury list.

dtpc191991

After the England game we find Sexton and Zebo have serious injuries whilst Kearney, BOD, McCarthy and SOB are also injured. This adds to a trend of frontline Irish players been injured for club and country consistantly over the last 2-3 seasons. This begs the question are we seriously unlucky or is something up with the standards of our strength, fitness and conditioning teams?

gcgirl

Its the game of rugby my dear Its part and parcel of the game, its the players behind chance to step up and prove their worth !

CatFromHue

The strains that Sexton, SOB, and Ross came off for over the two weekends are the only things that seem a bit weird to me.

.ak

Sexton pulling a hammy with not much of a swing of his leg screamed a lack of warm-up/stretching to me. Whether that's his fault or not, I don't know.

Oregano_State

.ak wrote: »

Sexton pulling a hammy with not much of a swing of his leg screamed a lack of warm-up/stretching to me. Whether that's his fault or not, I don't know.

I dunno about that. If you look closely he was leaning forward and off balance when he swung at it, from the knee mainly, instead of a proper swing from the hip. It was pretty much the worst possible position to be in from a strain-on-the-hamstring perspective.

I'd imagine that with him being a place-kicker, he'd be very careful to warm up his legs properly.

I think the intensity of the second half of the game against Wales took it's toll, and left the players more vulnerable to injury on Sunday.

JustinDee

dtpc191991 wrote: »

After the England game we find Sexton and Zebo have serious injuries whilst Kearney, BOD, McCarthy and SOB are also injured. This adds to a trend of frontline Irish players been injured for club and country consistantly over the last 2-3 seasons. This begs the question are we seriously unlucky or is something up with the standards of our strength, fitness and conditioning teams?

Nature of the game, particularly in two extremely tough performances on the trot.
Not exclusive to Ireland or the provinces by any means.

bilston

It's not that long ago that we always seemed to do a lot better when it came to injuries.

I'm not sure what has changed, the hits are bigger and happen more often but when I say we once did better with injuries I'm talking about 5 years ago not 25 years ago.

Actually when I think about it the increase in injuries seems to have coincided with the Kidney regime. I'm not saying that so that we have another stick to beat Deccie with but the players were maybe held back a bit more when EOS was in charge?

Quint2010

Is the player welfare system really working? Are players playing enough??

irishbucsfan

We were almost complete injury free in 09 weren't we?

totallegend

Zebo broke his foot, not sure you can put that down to anything other than the nature of the game, especially in a young guy who doesn't have the same miles on the clock as others.

What is worrying is the number of niggly, persistent injuries that players are accumulating, sometimes to the point of ending careers.

I don't think the player welfare system works particularly well, either in keeping the players injury-free or delivering results for the national side.

bilston

irishbucsfan wrote: »

We were almost complete injury free in 09 weren't we?

Pretty much. Ferris dislocated his finger in the 15 minutes of the Welsh game and D'Arcy was coming back from injury but from memory we were injury free. That obviously was during the Kidney tenure but I seem to remember thinking back during the EOS years that we were consistently lucky with injuries compared to England and France.

totallegend

irishbucsfan wrote: »

We were almost complete injury free in 09 weren't we?

Apart from Paddy Wallace's exploding face...

irishbucsfan

Kidney said something about them hoping for 15 percent injury rates. So they are expecting a fair auld amount of injuries.

CatFromHue

bilston wrote: »

It's not that long ago that we always seemed to do a lot better when it came to injuries.

I'm not sure what has changed, the hits are bigger and happen more often but when I say we once did better with injuries I'm talking about 5 years ago not 25 years ago.

Actually when I think about it the increase in injuries seems to have coincided with the Kidney regime. I'm not saying that so that we have another stick to beat Deccie with but the players were maybe held back a bit more when EOS was in charge?

Depends on what you mean by not that long ago.

Not that long ago the Rabo was only 10 teams with no playoffs, we'd only one team competing at the business end of the HEC, and Summer tours consisted of two tests only.

dtpc191991

I would put the likes of Zebo down to the nature of the game myself, however I think the sheer number and consistency of strain injuries can't be down to bad luck. Personally i too would question the welfare system. Maybe players aren't fit enough as a result. My evidence for this would lie in the fact that the French and English sides who have the most demanding leagues in Northern Hemisphere Rugby, and therefore their frontline players in then union are seeing much more game time, seem to be doing much better than us on the injury front.

bilston

CatFromHue wrote: »

Depends on what you mean by not that long ago.

Not that long ago the Rabo was only 10 teams with no playoffs, we'd only one team competing at the business end of the HEC, and Summer tours consisted of two tests only.

Good point on the Rabo, there are potentially 6 extra games a season in the league now but in saying that those extra games are played on international weekends rather than being additional weeks added onto the season so I'm not sure that it has changed the number of games the top players play.

Can anyone tell me what the NFL (American not Irish) players do in the off season? It always strikes me that the NFL season is very short (Sept-Beginning of Feb). Is this to curtail injuries? Could it be that in the future the rugby season will have to be substantially shortened?

CatFromHue

I think the NFL is only 10-12 games per season or something very short like that.

Teferi

bilston wrote: »

Can anyone tell me what the NFL (American not Irish) players do in the off season? It always strikes me that the NFL season is very short (Sept-Beginning of Feb). Is this to curtail injuries? Could it be that in the future the rugby season will have to be substantially shortened?

The NFL regular season is pretty intense with 16 games in 17 weeks. There are a fair few breaks in the regular rugby season.

dtpc191991

bilston wrote: »

Good point on the Rabo, there are potentially 6 extra games a season in the league now but in saying that those extra games are played on international weekends rather than being additional weeks added onto the season so I'm not sure that it has changed the number of games the top players play.

Can anyone tell me what the NFL (American not Irish) players do in the off season? It always strikes me that the NFL season is very short (Sept-Beginning of Feb). Is this to curtail injuries? Could it be that in the future the rugby season will have to be substantially shortened?

I wouldn't think so. NFL players only tend to last 2 seasons at the top due to injury.

totallegend

dtpc191991 wrote: »

I wouldn't think so. NFL players only tend to last 2 seasons at the top due to injury.

Eh? That is not correct

dtpc191991

totallegend wrote: »

Eh? That is not correct

Are you sure? Sky said it on their coverage of The Superbowl.

Podge_irl

NFL is 4 preseason games (with lower intensity and massive rotation), 16 regular season games in 17 weeks and then up to 4 playoff games.

I wouldn't say their injury rates are lower though a lot more players play through injuries with braces and injections and the like. They have a huge off season though which I'm sure helps.

Podge_irl

dtpc191991 wrote: »

Are you sure? Sky said it on their coverage of The Superbowl.

Very sure. Running backs probably have the shortest careers but you'd still expect them to last at the top for 5/6 years, some longer. QBs can go for 15 years. Other positions would average out around 10 I'd say.

totallegend

The google machine tells me that the average NFL career is 3.5 years but that includes guys whose career ends by not making the grade; the average career length of a first-round draft pick (guys who would probably see the most game time) is 9.3 years.

http://nflcommunications.com/2011/04/18/what-is-average-nfl-player%E2%80%99s-career-length-longer-than-you-might-think-commissioner-goodell-says/

But I suppose the point is that you're not comparing like with like so it's not really relevant.

Leslie91

Podge_irl wrote: »

NFL is 4 preseason games (with lower intensity and massive rotation), 16 regular season games in 17 weeks and then up to 4 playoff games.

I wouldn't say their injury rates are lower though a lot more players play through injuries with braces and injections and the like. They have a huge off season though which I'm sure helps.

Yeah most if not all are playing with an injury in the NFL. You are only close to 100% fit day 1. Week in week out the 'starters' are battered to F, no such thing as playing back ups as each game is more or less a must win.

Ironically (what with the helmet and all) the most worrying injury now is the concussion. It is not uncommon for a lad to have 2-3 concussions in 1 season, some going unreported. Some are retiring earlier now because of it even when in their prime (albeit with their money made).

JustinDee

Gridiron and rugby union are nothing of the same sorts. The on-field experience of a player differs vastly. The hits differ. The static v in motion ratio differs vastly slso. The length of a season in both might as well be comparing a soccer or Olympic handball season.