John Woods: A lifetime of scars

I WAS listening to a podcast recently and they were discussing injuries within rugby. I think they listed five Irish rugby players who have had three reasonably serious operations in the space of one year to fix both recurring injuries and fresh injuries.

This got me thinking back to an issue I have always thought about and that’s how the pressures in GAA at inter-county and club level have impacted on the long-term health of its players.

Throughout my playing days I have had a few injuries. I’ve broken my leg, arm, fingers and jaw in two places, over the space of 12 years, with the most recent injury being a broken thumb.

As crazy as it may sound I have actually been extremely lucky with injuries as most of those injuries have been the type of injury where once the healing has been completed everything is OK, with no on-going long-term treatment required.

What is common now within the GAA is the type of injuries where a player will need to consider how playing on will affect them years down the line. The physical demands are getting more and more onerous and players are pushing their bodies to the limits.

The most recent example of this is Ryan McCluskey, now at the age of 34 he has given a serious commitment to the county jersey, but he now has to go for surgery on his hip, which no doubt is due to the sheer pressure it has been subjected to in training and games.

It may be a straight forward operation at the time, but how will that affect him physically when he dons the retirement sweater?

These last few years has seen a huge spike in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears, which has been put down to numerous things, from the studs people wear, to over training leading to tired legs and even the wrong type of warm up.

It’s not quite the career ending injury it once was, but a recent American study has found people with ACL tears are three times more likely to get arthritis in their knee as they get older. I know a lot of people who have had more than one tear and have done it again or done the other knee.

Yes it may be bad luck, but sometimes pressure may have been on them to speed up their return from injury quicker than they perhaps should have.

The other problem is GAA players now put a big emphasis on the gym and some of the time it goes unmonitored. That leads to players setting themselves up for a serious long-term physical issue.

It is important, even if it is just on a part time basis, that the county should have someone with the expertise like Leon Carters to monitor the stars of the future so they won’t be limiting their potential, or setting themselves up for long-term health problems.

Down the years I have lost count the number of times I have seen teammates getting pain killing injections before big games. That’s why it annoys me when people in the crowd are personal about a player making a mistake. That player will have no doubt put in a serious amount work all year and has risked serious injury just to get on the field.

Rugby is a much more physical game, but the players have the time to nurse their injuries and the money to look after themselves. Once a Gaelic player finishes playing all they may have to show for it is the scars of the surgery and pain that only seem to get worse.
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