RUGBY INJURIES

Warming up and cooling down are critical but often overlooked parts of playing and training for rugby. Failing to warm up and cool down properly can significantly affect your performance and recovery.
Brandon Lee

Wise Up – Cool Down

Warming up and cooling down are critical but often overlooked parts of playing and training for rugby. Failing to warm up and cool down properly can significantly affect your performance and recovery.

Brandon Lee

Returning to Rugby at 37 Years Old

There was a familiar feel, sound and smell when walking into the rugby changing room after being absent for nearly two years. I made a couple of cameo appearances off the bench two years ago, so it is more like four years away from the game. I had never been in this particular changing room but immediately felt comfortable…

Brandon Lee

Building Muscle Diet Plan – Backed By A Superhero

Whether playing rugby, bulking up or fighting Gorr the God Butcher, a protein shake is a great way to start the day. That’s right, as we explored in our article ‘What Is The Ultimate Rugby Protein Shake’, you can help drive your fitness, strength and bulk with a glass of something from the mixer, but in the case of Chris Hemsworth, it’s not rugby he bulks up for. He is the star of the movie Thor: Love and Thunder, and his nutritionist says he swears by protein shakes as an alternative to the constant stream of food.

Anaerobic Fitness featured image
Brandon Lee

Rugby Fitness Drills and Anaerobic Fitness Games to Try

As a player, the perception of a tough loss might be different to what the coach sees. So, when you turn up to training and all your coach wants to do is load the team up with boring old fitness drills, morale can take a hit.

rugby shin splints
Patrick Dale

Can I play rugby with shin splits?

Rugby players are usually heavier than the average jogger and running places a lot of stress on your body, particularly your lower legs. So can you play rugby with shin splints? Possibly, if you do it correctly…

prevent head neck injuries
Patrick Dale

Preventing head and neck injuries in rugby

Head and neck injuries are relatively rare in rugby but, because of their potential severity, anything you can do to reduce your chances is time well spent. Include neck exercises in your workouts and protect your head at all times.

jade mcgrath's twice broken collarbone injury
Training Team

Jade McGrath’s twice broken collarbone

If you’re going to break your collarbone playing rugby, you might as well break it twice! Here’s how Jade McGrath suffered through a twice broken collarbone and still fronted up for classes on Monday #studentathlete.

Bobbie Kolarik optic nerve impact
Training Team

Bobbie Kolarik’s optic nerve impact

What happens when you get kicked in the eye playing rugby? For Bobbie Kolarik, it was temporary blindness as a result of optic nerve impact. Read the story here.

Shannon McNamara's destroyed knee
Training Team

Shannon McNamara’s destroyed knee

A week later, after a series of MRI’s and X-Ray’s, I find out I completely tore my ACL and partially tore my Medial Meniscus along with some significant bone bruising and a strain to my MCL, the good news was I didn’t break any bones.

Nicole Fisch's broken thumb
Training Team

Nicole Fisch’s fractured thumb

I went to an urgent care and before the physician assistant could even say anything, I knew it was broken from the look of the Xray. Turns out I fractured my thumb, but fortunately it was minimally displaced.

Cameron Hayward's flesh eating bacteria
Training Team

Cameron Hayward’s flesh eating bacteria

Have you heard of flesh eating bacteria getting at you while playing rugby? It happens! And this is the story of how it happened to TH Prop Cameron Hayward.

James Elliot fractured zygoma
Training Team

James Elliot’s missing cheek bone

This is the story of how James Elliot lost his cheek bone within his own face during a game of rugby. It’s known as a fractured zygoma, and here’s how it happened.

Bryce Latimer's string of injuries
Training Team

Bryce Latimer’s string of bad moments

After a two year mission, Bryce Latimer tried to make a quick return to the rugby field only to suffer through a string of injuries that took forever to get through. Just one of those periods.

Corey Carter's cracked orbital bone
Training Team

Corey Carter’s cracked orbital bone

His elbow met my skull just above the eyebrow and then skipped down into the eye orbital itself. I blacked out and when I came too, every one of my teammates was standing over me with a disgusted look on their face.

olivia lang's career of bloody noses
Training Team

Olivia Lang’s weird year of bloody noses

This isn’t a story of the worst injury as much as a weird year I had. In my 6 years of playing, these are all the bloody noses I’ve ever gotten…all on the same field.

Catherine King's shattered foot
Training Team

Catherine King’s shattered foot and ankle

This is the story of Catherine King’s shattered foot – “Overnight I was given a bionic foot with multiple metal plates, pins, and bone grafts. The works.

Andrew McMaster's broken collarbone
Training Team

Andrew McMaster’s separated shoulder joint

My separated shoulder healed, and still pops and has some major pain when bench pressing, but it’s “just as likely to break now as it was before it broke”, in the words of my doctor.

meghan hogan's broken collarbone
Training Team

Meghan Hogan’s broken collarbone

A week later, we get it x-rayed again, and They still can’t see anything because of my ribs. So they clear me, and I’m back tackling a week after having my collarbone broken.

Jen Marks' seizure on the rugby field
Training Team

Jen ‘Marks’ Markovics’ seizure on the field

Jen Marks tells the story of a brutal hip check – I fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes (this was what someone told me later) and I proceeded to have a seizure on the field.

Kaeli King rugby broken nose
Training Team

Kaeli King’s smashed up face

I heard the sickening snap and suddenly I was transported into a Quentin Tarantino film, and I briefly wondered if my jugular had been severed.

sam reeves broken leg in 5 places
Training Team

Samantha Reeves’ broken leg in 5 places

How Samantha Reeves broke her leg in 5 places during a game of rugby 7s. The X-Rays are crazy. But don’t worry, she makes a full (11 month) recovery.

Nick Martirossian caved in face
Training Team

Nick Martirossian’s caved in face

Anyway, I went to the hospital where I was scanned and x-rayed. Come to find out, the back of the runner’s head had caved in half of my face

Courtney Leahy torn acl and meniscus
Training Team

Courtney Leahy’s torn ACL and meniscus

Results showed a torn ACL… my collegiate rugby career was stopped in it’s tracks. 502 days later I stepped onto the pitch to play rugby again…

justin mitchell torn scrotum playing rugby
Training Team

Justin Mitchell’s three inch scrotum tear

If you tore your scrotum playing rugby, do you think you’d finish the game? Better question; do you think you’d score two tries in the game? Justin did.

Braxton Smith's diagonal split fibula
Training Team

Braxton Smith’s diagonal split fibula

Touch, it was in a warm-up game of touch that granted me my worst rugby injury by far. We were gearing up for our then rival San Antonio and had finally managed to get enough numbers out.

Jessica Isaacs my rugby injury
Training Team

Jessica Isaacs’ fractured left scapula

Jessica Isaacs’ initial diagnosis didn’t reveal her fractured left scapula but after a few weeks of intense pain they finally caught it on the MRI!

torn larynx and trachea playing rugby
Training Team

Johnny Francis’ torn larynx and trachea

What’s worse than concussion? How about an elbow in the neck, a torn larynx and blood leaking into your trachea? Read Johnny Francis’ worst rugby injury.

gina rice's elephant leg and ankle
Training Team

Gina Rice’s Elephant Ankle and Leg

It was the big training weekend before the fall season kicked off in 2016. We were taking pictures and role-playing action shots, so my teammate tackled me. Her knee drove into my calf muscle, which kind of feels like stubbing your toe, except half your leg. I walked it off, but damn…

kailyn schmidt emerald city mudhens
Training Team

Kailyn Schmidt ‘your nose is definitely broken’

How no blood came out I’ll never know but after another minute of play, we kicked out to end the game – with a big W – and I ran to the sideline. My face throbbed and I looked to a teammate to check the status of my nose. “That nose is broke.”

double broken nose in rugby
Training Team

Ellie Terry-Emert’s double broken nose

I was about to tackle the girl, and during the backswing of her stride her fist perfectly connected with my nose. She was trying to “stiff arm”. I made the tackle, but my nose started bleeding and I knew it had broken so I had it checked out at the medic tent.

Bryan Hayes' broken left wrist
Training Team

Bryan Hayes’ broken left wrist

Bryan Hayes’ broken left wrist was a tough injury to recover from – but the University of Cincinnati Scrumhalf made it back to the rugby field.

jacob liberman's sheared transverse process
Jacob Liberman

Jacob Liberman’s sheared transverse process

Austin Huns 7s coach Jacob Liberman tells the story of his sheared transverse process and broken spine – by far the scariest and according to him, the worst rugby injury he ever had.

mobilization of rugby injuries
Clarke Cayton

Returning to rugby: from a broken leg – pt3 mobilization

How hard is it to return to the rugby field after suffering a broken leg? Clarke Cayton explains the road back after sustaining his broken leg. It’s not an easy road, lots of rehab rest and support from his family. Read the story of his road back from a broken leg.

rugby acl injury
Nick McCashin

Returning to rugby: from a torn ACL

“There is no one to blame for my ACL injury but myself.” Nick McCashin explains what its like to get back on the rugby field after a torn ACL. The blog includes a complete breakdown of what it takes to recover from a torn ACL on the rugby field.

immobilization of rugby injuries
Clarke Cayton

When rugby breaks your stride – pt. 2 immobilization

Pt 2 in our series on what its like to break your leg playing rugby. Today, Clarke Cayton explains the immobilization phase of rugby leg injuries. You might imagine that it’s a lot of laying down and not much else. But you’d be wrong!

best rugby recovery stretches
Patrick Dale

13 best rugby recovery stretches

How should rugby players use stretching to reduce DOMS and improve recovery? Here is a rundown of the best recovery stretches that any rugby player can do. Forget just focusing on strength training, flexibility and mobility both matter. Here’s how to improve them both.

rugby injury traumatic phase
Clarke Cayton

When rugby breaks your stride – pt. 1 Traumatic Phase

A traumatic leg injury can be a devastating experience to the amateur rugby player. When the incident occurs, the whole world instantly comes crashing down. The traumatic phase of a rugby injury usually occurs on the field so acting quickly is critical.

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