Abstract
BackgroundEpidemiologic data in professional sport is becoming an increasingly valuable tool in identifying frequently occurring injuries and developing strategies to reduce their occurrence. Currently, there is a paucity of literature on the epidemiology of knee injuries in professional male rugby league players.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed medical records from a single male professional rugby league team (Newcastle Knights), competing in Australia, and evaluated knee injuries and time to return to play.ResultsIn total, 89 knee injuries occurred, with an injury incidence of 616.7 injuries per 1000 players. The most frequently occurring knee injuries were medial collateral ligament (416.7 injuries per 1000 players) and chondral/meniscal injuries (416.7 injuries per 1000 players). For all injury types, being tackled was the most common mechanism of injury, and the median time to return to play was 1 day. Anterior cruciate ligament injuries accounted for the longest time to return to play (median 236.0 days).ConclusionMedial collateral ligament and chondral/meniscal injury types were the most frequent injuries; however, anterior cruciate ligament injuries accounted for the most time missed from sport despite being less common. Professional male rugby league players incur similar knee injury types compared to rugby union based upon our study and other similar studies.
Highlights
Epidemiologic data in professional sport is becoming an increasingly valuable tool in identifying frequently occurring injuries and developing strategies to reduce their occurrence
Previous studies have examined the distribution of injury types in professional rugby league, and these have demonstrated that lower-limb and knee injuries are amongst the most common injury-type sustained [2, 3]
Despite the high rate of knee injuries seen in rugby league, there is a paucity of literature on the epidemiology of such injuries in professional male players, with current studies undertaking little analysis of knee injury subtypes in this population [2, 4]
Summary
Epidemiologic data in professional sport is becoming an increasingly valuable tool in identifying frequently occurring injuries and developing strategies to reduce their occurrence. There is a paucity of literature on the epidemiology of knee injuries in professional male rugby league players. Epidemiologic data that pertains to a specific code of sport helps to identify frequently occurring injuries within that sport This data can be used to establish the aetiology and mechanisms of these injuries, develop and implement strategies to reduce their occurrence, and re-assess (2019) 5:33. Despite the high rate of knee injuries seen in rugby league, there is a paucity of literature on the epidemiology of such injuries in professional male players, with current studies undertaking little analysis of knee injury subtypes in this population [2, 4]. The aim of our study was to evaluate the type and characteristics of knee injuries in a professional male rugby league team, mechanisms of injury, interventions required, and the time to recovery and to compare this to similar data in the literature
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
