The time lost for recovery following a concussion or suspected concussion can vary greatly from sport to sport and within a specific sport at different age group playing levels.
In Rugby Union in Ireland one factor in this time period of the mandated graduated return to play protocol. Any player removed from play with a concussion should enter the IRFU Graduated Return to Play (GRTP) protocol. The GRTP takes a minimum of 21 days for adults and 23 days for U20s. Alongside UL’s Irish Rugby Injury Surveillance (IRIS) new research partner UPMC Ireland, and with UPMC Pittsburgh based colleagues Dr Micky Collins and Dr Anthony Kontos, myself and Dr Tom Comyns retrospectively examined IRIS’ prospective injury surveillance adult amateur data for concussion related time-loss. The work was presented recently at UPMC April 2024 Sport-Related Concussion Conference in Pittsburgh.
This study’s aim was to report the frequency and time-loss severity of concussion in male and female adult amateur Rugby Union.
Using a bespoke web-based injury recording system (IRISweb), 1017 players (m=878, f=139) from 26 national league clubs (m=22, f=4) were recruited for a full 2022/23 season in Ireland. A team physician reviewed injuries for ‘return to play’, defined for concussion as symptom resolution focused on aerobic capacity according to the 2022 IRFU’s Graduated Return to Play (GRTP) protocol.
The most commonly reported match injuries for men’s Rugby were concussion (9.1 per 1,000 player hours [ph], 20%), followed by ankle ligament sprains (5.0/1,000 ph, 11%) and hamstring strains (4.7/1,000 ph, 10%); for women it was ankle ligament sprains (4.3/1,000 ph, 14%), knee sprains (3.7/1,000 ph, 12%) and concussion (2.5/1,000 ph, 8%). Concussion injuries resulted in an average of 30 days absence from Rugby match or training activities for men and 31 days for women, cognisant that was inclusive of the IRFU’s mandated GRTP minimum 21 days required absence for adults.
Concussion was not the most prevalent women’s injury in Ireland but does present the same severity as the men’s game. Concussion severity is based on a mandated sit-out period, therefore examining individual symptom resolution within a GRTP protocol could be incorporated by clinicians and researchers to better reflect severity.Kenny, I.C., Power, L.C., Mulvihill, J.J.E., Collins, M.W., Kontos, A.P. and Comyns, T.M. (2024) Concussion Time-Loss Severity in Amateur Rugby Union. Proceedings of the TREAT sport-related concussion Conference, 20-21 April 2024, Pittsburgh, USA.
https://www.ul.ie/shprc/research-themes/rugby-science/irish-rugby-injury-surveillance https://www.ul.ie/shprc
Prof Ian Kenny is a Professor in Biomechanics in the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences at the University of Limerick. Prof Kenny is co-Principal Investigator for IRIS (with Dr Tom Comyns) and co-director of the Sport and Human Performance Research Centre (with Prof Giles Warrington). Prof Kenny’s research interests include the biomechanics of sports injury and sports medicine, and musculoskeletal modelling and computer simulation of movement.
Contact: Email: ian.kenny@ul.ie ResearchGate @IanCKenny
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