Pain game: Repeated painkilling injections have left a generation of athletes in permanent pain

PAIN GAME: A culture of painkilling injections has created a generation of retired athletes who live in permanent pain. How has this happened?

ONE of Australia’s leading joint experts has warned a culture of painkilling injections has created a generation of retired players who live in permanent pain.

University of Sydney professor of medicine David Hunter on Tuesday said AFL players who were issued with repeated injections needed to understand the lifetime consequences.

Medical experts now believe even the anaesthetic itself can damage and undermine joints as well as dulling pain while a player does greater damage when playing with injury.

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The world’s leading expert on osteoarthritis, Hunter has treated countless players who need knee replacements and suffer arthritis as a result of playing at any costs.

Brisbane premiership coach Leigh Matthews famously boasted his doctors used 18 vials of painkillers in the club’s 2003 Grand Final win.

And while the AFL has regulations on painkilling injections, by September players will repeatedly be injected to deaden the pain during finals.

Leigh Matthews and his 2003 premiership winning Lions used a lot of painkillers.

The Herald Sun can reveal the AFLPA brokered during the last midterm collective bargaining review the introduction of an Occupational Health and Safety committee covering injury management.

It ensures minimum medical standards under which players can be injected and has players represented on a committee covering all injury management.

Hunter told the Herald Sun he was concerned about any player who had more than one injection into a joint like a knee, ankle or AC joint.

“I wouldn’t advocate it for players so they can run out on the field even one more time,’’ he said.

“To me I don’t think that’s worth it. You see footballers walking around in their late 30s and early 40s who limp as a consequence of decisions they made when they were in their 20s.

“My general advice is maybe a one-off in a joint that is otherwise stable and structurally intact but if you are having repeat injections done every week to get on the field I would strongly advise that is not sensible for a person’s long-term health.

“If you are getting any joint injected repeatedly you put it at risk of long-term structural damage.”

AFL legal boss Andrew Dillon said this week the number of painkilling injections per club was tightly monitored by the league’s integrity department.

The use of every pain relief tablet and pain killing injection must now be logged by player and club using a controlled substances phone app.

AFL sports physician Peter Larkins admits he is uneasy about the use of some painkilling injections by AFL club doctors.

He says there is unrivalled pressure to get players back onto the field given a cap on rotations.

Larkins says while some clubs would only inject a handful of players each season, others have admitted to as many as 80 injections per season.

“By and large there are a crop of doctors out there who are really very good at making these decisions,’’ he said.

“But there are still clubs who have got less experienced guys who are under pressure and they are new on the AFL landscape.

Peter Larkins has warned about the dangers of repeated painkilling injections.

“And those guys are still finding their feet a little with the pressure of match day and the heat of a game with what they should or shouldn’t do to get their players back on the ground.”

The only Australian study tracking the long-term effect of painkilling injections on NRL players raises a series of concerns.

Conducted in 2010 by Sydney Roosters NRL doctor John Orchard, it urges sports codes to fund and conduct their own investigation into painkilling injections.

That study on Orchard’s own players after concerns over the practice shows 22 per cent of players believed the injection delayed their recovery, with six per cent believing it worsened it.

The AFLPA’s minimum medical standards state injections may only be administered by medical practitioners.

They also require doctors to obtain informed consent, with players having a right to refuse treatment or obtain a second medical opinion.