injuryupdate
07-04-2004, 08:47 PM
Good article by Peter Larkins in the Herald-Sun:
ESSENDON has been the most unlucky club this year with at least seven players having a hamstring strain before Round 1 and several others missing time with other soft tissue problems.
On Saturday night they had four players return after pre-season hamstring injuries -- Mark Mercuri, Mark Johnson, Aaron Henneman and Mark McVeigh. Of these only Mercuri got through the game without re-injury.
To make matters worse, on Friday night Jason Johnson broke down at training with a new hamstring tear and will miss three to four weeks.
Whenever a club has this many soft tissue injuries questions are inevitably raised as to the training program and approach to injury prevention used by the club.
This is a pointless exercise as there is usually no single factor responsible for these injuries. Essendon's fitness and medical staff have already analysed their situation without obvious solutions.
They have one of the most experienced medical teams in the AFL and believe it is just one of those times when fate takes over.
They have said that their preparation in 2004 is no different from past years with respect to running or weights programs.
They have had the disadvantage of not being able to train at Windy Hill due to resurfacing and work on drainage at the ground.
This has meant training at multiple venues with differing surfaces in the pre-season. While this may predispose to muscle soreness there is no scientific basis to the theory that this has caused more hamstring tears.
It is most likely that this is sheer bad luck and the club would be optimistic that they have had all their injury misfortune early in the season.
I remember a similar horror period for Essendon in 1997 when they had multiple hamstring injuries in a short space of time after a very low incidence in 1995 and 1996.
Again, no cause was found at that time.
The club had the same medical staff then and they would be just as frustrated but also somewhat bemused by the similar circumstances.
Hamstring injuries cause more missed games per club each year than any other injury.
Hamstring injuries are already having a significant impact on the 2004 season with more than 30 players suffering a tear in the pre-season period.
As this injury has the highest rate of reinjury (33 per cent) of all football injuries, each of these players will be nervous about a second episode.
In recent times, on average, each team has 6.3 players tear a hamstring muscle each season. The average time missed is 3.4 games per injury.
Older players are more prone to this injury and the single most common risk factor is a previous injury to the same muscle.
Players will almost always have an MRI scan in 2004 as this will show the site of the tear, the degree of tissue damage and the amount of bleeding.
A definite trend is emerging which shows that clubs are more conservative and keeping players out for longer. As a result, the recurrence rate has gone down.
ESSENDON has been the most unlucky club this year with at least seven players having a hamstring strain before Round 1 and several others missing time with other soft tissue problems.
On Saturday night they had four players return after pre-season hamstring injuries -- Mark Mercuri, Mark Johnson, Aaron Henneman and Mark McVeigh. Of these only Mercuri got through the game without re-injury.
To make matters worse, on Friday night Jason Johnson broke down at training with a new hamstring tear and will miss three to four weeks.
Whenever a club has this many soft tissue injuries questions are inevitably raised as to the training program and approach to injury prevention used by the club.
This is a pointless exercise as there is usually no single factor responsible for these injuries. Essendon's fitness and medical staff have already analysed their situation without obvious solutions.
They have one of the most experienced medical teams in the AFL and believe it is just one of those times when fate takes over.
They have said that their preparation in 2004 is no different from past years with respect to running or weights programs.
They have had the disadvantage of not being able to train at Windy Hill due to resurfacing and work on drainage at the ground.
This has meant training at multiple venues with differing surfaces in the pre-season. While this may predispose to muscle soreness there is no scientific basis to the theory that this has caused more hamstring tears.
It is most likely that this is sheer bad luck and the club would be optimistic that they have had all their injury misfortune early in the season.
I remember a similar horror period for Essendon in 1997 when they had multiple hamstring injuries in a short space of time after a very low incidence in 1995 and 1996.
Again, no cause was found at that time.
The club had the same medical staff then and they would be just as frustrated but also somewhat bemused by the similar circumstances.
Hamstring injuries cause more missed games per club each year than any other injury.
Hamstring injuries are already having a significant impact on the 2004 season with more than 30 players suffering a tear in the pre-season period.
As this injury has the highest rate of reinjury (33 per cent) of all football injuries, each of these players will be nervous about a second episode.
In recent times, on average, each team has 6.3 players tear a hamstring muscle each season. The average time missed is 3.4 games per injury.
Older players are more prone to this injury and the single most common risk factor is a previous injury to the same muscle.
Players will almost always have an MRI scan in 2004 as this will show the site of the tear, the degree of tissue damage and the amount of bleeding.
A definite trend is emerging which shows that clubs are more conservative and keeping players out for longer. As a result, the recurrence rate has gone down.