NRL 2020 injury crisis: $25m casualty ward crippling the game
The NRL is experiencing one of the worst injury crises in its history as desperate coaches alter playing styles and structure on the run. LOOK WHO WON’T BE PLAYING THIS WEEKEND!
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About 50,000 fans will finally be allowed back in NRL grounds this round — but a mind-blowing $25 million worth of football talent will be missing.
This has become the colossal COVID curse.
News Corp Australia can reveal a massive injury toll has enveloped the NRL with non-contact and soft-tissue injuries — including knee, hamstring, calf and muscle tendon injuries — having doubled compared to previous years.
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And the increase in training injuries has been described as “abnormal” by leading physio Brien Seeney. A series of COVID-related issues have emerged as key factors behind the stunning injury list.
Fans will be permitted to return to home grounds from this weekend but some of rugby league’s stars will be absent, including Tom Trbojevic (hamstring), David Fifita (knee), John Bateman (shoulder), Cameron Munster (knee), Josh Addo-Carr (HIA), Michael Morgan (shoulder), Val Holmes (ankle), Mitch Moses (calf), Josh Mansour (knee), Dylan Walker (ankle), Tariq Sims (wrist) and Victor Radley (knee).
In a shortened season, desperate coaches are having now to alter playing styles and structure on the run to overcome the injury crisis.
NRL medical staff have discussed the German football Bundesliga — the first world sport to return from COVID — where the injury rate has increased by more than three times on previous seasons.
The reasons for such an injury count in the NRL includes:
* Cash-strapped clubs being forced to slash football department staff, meaning a drop in injury-prevention programs and rehabilitation being undertaken by junior and cheaper medical staff;
* A reduction in professional staff — including masseurs — allowed to work inside the restricted bubbles;
* The eight-week COVID break, during which players were unable to play or participate in organised training;
* Players enduring difficult preparation and recovery for fly-in, fly-out games in Brisbane, Townsville, Brisbane and Melbourne, Canberra were required to travel to Campbelltown and back in a day;
* A shortened start to the post COVID resumption;
* High-injury risk players outside the top 17 being promoted into the NRL despite not having secured game time with lower tier competitions, including NSW Cup and the under-20s, being cancelled;
* Some players clearly having disregarded individual training during lockdown.
“There are a few factors and they all contribute,” said Manly, NSW and former Wallabies doctor, Nathan Gibbs.
“These have had to be compromised for the sake of minimising the risk and transmission of COVID.”
Seeney added: “Hamstrings and calf injuries have gone through the roof — Mitchell Moses, Tom Trbojevic. It’s those non-contact strains that have definitely increased.
“Increasing the load to a professional sporting level, over such a short period of time (before the resumption), even the bodies of the finest athletes in the country couldn’t handle that well enough to avoid injury.”
Gibbs, a former Souths and Parramatta forward, said COVID was causing havoc for players this year.
“That shortened pre-season post COVID has definitely impacted on these types of injuries. Flying up and back to away venues on the same day is also affecting preparation and recovery,” Gibbs said.
“Players getting home at 2am is not ideal after being on aeroplanes. They are things you wouldn’t normally do in an ideal world. This isn’t a criticism, just a fact of what all clubs have had to do.
“Some of the strength and conditioning people have been punted so staffing cuts have affected the ability to run those injury prevention programs. And less staff in the bubble definitely affects your ability to the run the programs.
“The team that wins the comp this year will be the team that can just hang on the best.”
Gibbs believes the injury rate will decrease as players contest more games, saying: “As the season progresses, the injury risk will definitely reduce because players are actually getting fitter.”
Originally published as NRL 2020 injury crisis: $25m casualty ward crippling the game