Injury-prevention priorities according to playing position in professional rugby union players.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the match injury profile of professional rugby union players by individual playing position.


METHODS
4-season prospective cohort design.


METHODS
14 English Premiership clubs.


METHODS
899 professional players.


METHODS
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.


METHODS
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.
Brooks
J H M
JH
Rugby Football Union, Rugby House, Rugby Road, Twickenham TW1 1DS, UK. johnbrooks@rfu.com
Kemp
S P T
SP
D000041:Absenteeism; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D005538:Football / Q000293:injuries* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006292:Health Priorities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011315:Preventive Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment