Why women’s rugby needs its own injury prevention strategy

The Women’s Six Nations Championship is underway growing public concern regarding risk of injury players.

There has been a major increase within the number of girls playing rugby in recent times. Women now complement one another one quarter of an hour the world’s rugby playing population. However, despite the incontrovertible fact that similar injuries occur in each men’s and women’s rugby, female players need their own injury prevention strategy.

There is evidence to suggest that gender differences may occur influence injuries in team sports basically.

Research shows that lower neck strength may predispose women to playing rugby to concussion. Studies have shown that ladies do greater head acceleration in response to applied force than men, which can increase their predisposition to concussion. This could also be attributable to the incontrovertible fact that women have significantly lower isometric strength and neck circumference.

Anatomical differences within the pelvis, knee and lower leg in women may change the positioning of the lower limbs. Resultant knee lightor “knee bump”, May increase the chance of injury to the knee, especially the medial collateral ligament, meniscus and possibly the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Gender differences in neuromuscular function They have also been reported to contribute to this disorder (brain-muscle communication). ACL injury and eventually concussion.

While these differences exist, the common forms of injuries in men’s and women’s rugby are similar. Concussion tops the list for essentially the most common diagnosis for a selected injury, closely followed by lower leg injuries to the ankle, knee and hamstring.

Higher risk?

In rugby union an the injury is defined any physical condition suffered by a player while playing which renders him unable to participate in future rugby activities.

At the elite level, women’s rugby has an overall risk of injury that is nearly 50% lower than men’s rugby. This equates to roughly three injuries in each men’s skilled match and lower than two injuries in each women’s rugby match.

In amateur rugby the situation is different. Both female and male players face the challenge comparable risk of injuryalthough the general risk is lower than on the skilled level.

Emerging evidence also suggests that the general burden of harm could also be higher in women than in men on this level. Injury burden is a composite measure of injury incidence or frequency and variety of missed days utilized by experts to know the general impact of injuries.

Concussion and ACL injuries

Concussion is a gentle traumatic brain injury, often brought on by a blow to the pinnacle or body. Frequency of concussions in professional men’s rugby is over 30% higher than in women’s rugby. Research on this topic is proscribed, however it could also be attributable to the increased size and speed in men’s rugby increasing the force of contact with the body and subsequently the pinnacle and neck.

However, gender differences in overall injury risk mean that concussion causes greater than a 3rd of all injuries in women and lower than 1 / 4 of all injuries in men.

It can be noteworthy that female athletes face more adversarial consequences than males following concussions, for instance twice the recovery time. The cause concussion also needs to be considered. Whiplash and head contact with the bottom are essential aspects in female athletes, to a greater extent than in men. This is attributable to lower isometric neck strength, which suggests less head control when sliding.

ACL injuries are also a plague elite women’s football. But in elite rugby they’re 20 times higher for man skilled rugby players than theirs female counterparts.

Looking on the lower levels of rugby, it becomes clear that ladies are five times more more likely to suffer ACL injuries in comparison with men. Like concussions, ACL injuries carry a better injury burden for girls in comparison with men, recovery time is 50% longer.

Questions without answers

Many questions surrounding women’s rugby injuries remain unanswered. For example, as women’s rugby moves towards professionalism, how will this affect injury risk?

The lack of elite women’s teams likely contributed to women taking on sports at an older age than men. This may explain emerging evidence of a link between poorer attacking technique and greater injury risk in female players.

There are many other aspects that we’d like to higher understand. For example, is the upper injury burden often reported in women’s rugby attributable to an absence of adequate medical support for women’s teams? And is the menstrual cycle related to this? sports injury?

We also need to higher understand breast injuries. These injuries are common in other sports equivalent to basketball, soccer, softball and volleyball. Nearly half of female athletes in such sports reported having suffered a breast injury. However, there could be very little research or established guidance on breast protection and health in women’s rugby.

Despite these unanswered questions, it is evident that in terms of playing contact sports, women can’t be simply viewed as smaller versions of men. Rather than imposing injury prevention strategies on women in rugby, it could be more helpful to direct attention to understanding the precise injury risks within the women’s game. We can then develop tailored injury prevention strategies for female athletes.