We have reached the time of year where the GAA season takes off. Most club teams will by now have commenced their pre-season training. County teams have their pre-season training completed and have moved on to competitive football. The result if this up-surge in activity is of course an increase in work-load for physiotherapists as injuries start to appear. The ‘phenomenon’ of injuries in a fast moving, multi-directional, contact sport is not unique to Gaelic Games (even though everyone’s da or uncle never had a hamstring in their day!) Injuries occur in all similar sports (rugby, soccer etc.) at all levels.

In order to try to prevent injuries we need to firstly find out how, when and where injuries occur before any strategies can be implemented to reduce their incidence. Unfortunately recording of injuries in Gaelic Games on a large scale had not occurred up until the last 5 years or so but already some consistent and interesting conclusions can be made that can help change how a team prepares in order to reduce the number of injuries to a squad. This data while only recorded at county level can easily be made relevant to a club scenario also.

So without going through the full details of any findings, here is some food for thought.
A lot of club teams have spent money on furnishing rooms in their club houses with gym equipment. Here, testosterone junkies can transform their bodies filling the jersey more with, bench presses, shoulder weights and the old favourite, the bicep curl. However statistics show that shoulder/chest injuries make up only 8-10% of squad injuries in a year yet players persist on strengthening this part of their anatomy while spending less time on areas more commonly injured. Groin, thigh and knee injuries make up in the region of 50% of injuries. A more balanced ratio of upper limb and lower limb strength training should be implemented.

Coincidently, the most commonly injured area is the thigh which encompasses the quadriceps and hamstring muscles. Talking about hamstring injuries would warrant a whole article on it’s own! The hamstrings are responsible for the control of two major joints (most muscle groups only control 1 joint) the knee and the hip. Therefore any prevention strategies for hamstring injuries must address how both these joints move in the overall chain of events that are involved in an action such as running.

In terms of an overall squad, 17-19% of injuries occur to midfield players, 30-35% occur to forwards and 40-45% occurs to defenders. Given that a squad is made up of fewer midfielders than forwards or defenders, these statistics suggest that midfielders are more commonly injured and hence could be afforded less time carrying out contact related drills in training. These figures can also help a manager decide the make-up of his squad in terms of how many defenders he may choose in comparison to forwards given that defenders are more likely to get injured.

On the subject of contact drills, the number of contact to non-contact (e.g. sprinting, turning, kicking) injuries is overall relatively even. Where these figures differ is when we consider match time compared to training time. During a game, approx 60% of injuries are caused by contact. In training, this figure is reduced to approx 45%. However if a manager/trainer feels this figure is high during training, he/she may decide to reduce the number of contact related drills.

Of course, all statistics should only be used as guidelines and should not be taken out of context. Given the nature of our games, injuries will be ever-present. In order to reduce injuries we need accurately recorded data to analyse for prevention strategies to be composed. We must do this without losing any core values in team preparation. However I hope I have given you some food for thought in the realisation that injuries follow trends and trainers can influence their incidence-either positively or negatively!

Note: the above statistics are based on data recorded from men’s football injuries only.