Adam Treloar, Hayden Young, George Wardlaw and Jason Johannisen are just some of the high-profile names that sustained significant hamstring injuries, whereas Marcus Bontompelli, Shai Bolton and Tom Green all went down with calves.
So, was all the talk reasonable, or was it a bit of hysteria at a time when these shows need to be filled with content when not much is happening?
Well, while I don’t have an answer for you right now, we can be sure the AFL will.
The medicos and physios at each club provide all injury data each season, which is released in a formal report, so trends can be observed and acted upon.
I have a lot of sympathy for my colleagues working in the elite sports environment at this time of the year.
The process of preparing an athlete's body for a successful season; both from a performance perspective, as well as injury prevention, is a very complex balance. I’ll explain why.
Let’s use hamstring injuries as an example.
Athletes tend to injure their hamstring when they accelerate or sprint at maximal speed.
We know, from a huge amount of research that a great way to reduce the risk of tearing a hamstring in a particular game, is to have had the athlete complete a high number of these running efforts in the weeks prior to the game.
It makes sense; the muscles get conditioned to the loads, and they are less likely to fail when they are required to complete similar work in a game.
This high load training also prepares the players’ fitness to be able to perform at a high level for the entirety of the game.
So what is the catch? As you may have already realised, the process of conditioning the muscle via getting the player to complete the high-speed running at training, is itself putting them at risk of an injury at that time.
So, as a club, do you prioritise reducing the number of preseason injuries via limiting the ‘risky’ running patterns in preseason?
This gives you a better chance of having all your stars available for round 1, albeit they are at a higher risk of injury at that point in time, as well as being less conditioned to perform.
Or do you really push the limits during preseason such that the players who get through unscathed are in great condition and less likely to cop an injury in those fast and furious early season games?
In this scenario, you go in with eyes open that you will likely lose a few soldiers to soft tissue injuries in the process.
When assessing how a club’s medical team might be tracking, I tend to wait until June or July to look at a club’s soft tissue injury list as well as their ability to run out games
If they are tracking well at this point, I wouldn’t be too critical of a few frustrating soft tissue injuries back in February.
Pat Arnold is a director and sports physiotherapist at Echuca-Moama Physiotherapy with 15 years of experience.
Appointments with Pat and his colleagues can be made by calling 5480 0860 or booking online at echucamoamaphysio.com.au
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