injuryupdate
07-01-2004, 02:32 PM
As expected in September, newspaper sports headlines were dominated by accounts of AFL and NRL players requiring local anaesthetic injections to get on the field in finals. A twist to the usual tales of bravery is that in the rugby World Cup local anaesthetic injections were officially illegal (see International Rugby Board Regulation 21.7.2.) In the Daily Telegraph, on September 18, medical director John Best was quoted in an article written by Rupert Guinness as saying that the law was impossible to fully police. The same article quoted an unnamed Super 12 player as saying that doctors could flout the law by "putting a nick in [a player and then] a stitch in and say they needed [the local anaesthetic for the stitches]". Using local anaesthetic is only legal under IRB laws for stitching bleeding wounds. The player was also quoted as saying "They sort of flout the law. I am pretty sure that it happens all over the place, internationally and at Super 12 level". During the New Zealand-South Africa quarter final commentary, Simon Poidevin was mentioning the rib injury of Jerry Collins and said "I'm sure he's playing with a 'shot'", adding evidence that the rule was widely ignored. However, the potential dangers of local anaesthetic have been recently highlighted by news that Adrian Whitehead is pursuing a legal compensation case against his former AFL club Carlton due to alleged complications.