Rugby Subluxation Injury 19yrs

[rugby]

Hi,

Im a 19 year old from sydney and ive recently (3months ago) injured my shoulder playing rugby. Im a bit of a lightweight and it initially occured when i was tackling a kid and he stepped away from me. Its difficult to describe but my arm out straight, parallel to the ground and as he stepped past it pushed my arm backwards past its natural motion. After the game i felt slight pain and struggled to raise it above my shoulder level.

The following 2 weeks i continued to play but it progressively got worse, by the 3rd week every tackle i made it would give me a dead arm for about a minute. I decided to get it checked out and got an MRI. The sports physician said i had been partially dislocating my shoulder every time and that i should try physio and if this wasnt successful i should get surgery.

3 months on my shoulder is without pain doing every day things. I have stopped subluxing (the first month after it happened a few times real easy) and since the season is over i havent gotten into any contact work yet with rugby. However when im throwing a ball i cannot use full power without getting the dead arm, and when i kick the footy around with my friends i have to protect my right shoulder because if i get bumped too hard i can tell its real close to happening.

I spoke to a relative who is an orthopedic surgeon and he thinks i should get it done so i can play next season and that the next time i go into a big tackle it will come out (i reckon he will be right as well). The problem is that ive been reading about a lot of injuries on this forum and the shoulder seems to be a fairly problematic to fix, with lots of complications. My shoulder isnt bad day to day so i would hate to go into surgery with a good shoulder (but no rugby) and come out of it with a shoulder that might still not be able to play rugby and just cause my 9 months of rehab.

What are people's experience with injuries similar to this? What would you do in my situation?

[jdp1982]

im no expert but if i was you i would get one of my mates to run at me, not full bore, but enough to give it a good test.

if it pops out your stuffed and would get the op but otherwise more physio should be sweet.

[yogagirl]

hi, i would get some more advice- did you get to speak with a specialist?

Did the mri show whether you have damaged tissue, e.g the glenoid labrum- sometimes call a bankart lesion, or could have done other things. the accompanying report should have some results?? interpret the anatomy...

If he said see how it goes- definitely see a specialist physio for specific shoulder rehab exercises- not just sports ones. make sure you go to someone really good-ask around. Expect to pay for it. $90+ first visit, less after... all i can say is you will need to have willingness to really strengthen and see if it heals on it's own- there is a chance depending on what you've done, or if you have to have an op down the track you will be on your way.

i'm sorry this has happened, but it's amazing the number people with shoulder injuries!!