HARDCASE OR HEADCASE?
AS A former, amateur, semi-pro, professional Rugby League player of the 70s, 80s & 90s that has just recently undergone a scan to check for any brain damage that occurred during those years, the headline to this article is a question that I have been asking myself.
Studies that took place from January 1990 to October 2015 reported the number and incidence of concussion injuries and “concussion injury risk” in Rugby League matches and training activities.
• Amateur Rugby League players had a higher reported concussion injury rate during matches than professional and semi-professional participants.
• Amateur Rugby League players had the highest incidence of concussive injuries in matches (19.1 per 1000 match hours)
• Semi-professional players had the highest incidence of concussive injuries in training (3.1 per 1000 training hours).
• Semi-professional players had nearly a threefold greater “concussion injury risk” than amateur Rugby League players during matches.
• Semi-professional players also had nearly a 600-fold greater “concussion injury risk” than professional Rugby League players during training.
During my professional playing career any concussion injury risk was monitored reasonably well, but the same cannot be said of my semi-pro and amateur playing days.