Abstract

Background: Touch (rugby/football) is a minimal contact sport for which the type and incidence of injuries remains unknown in Europe. Objectives: To establish the incidence, severity and nature of injuries sustained during a four-day European Touch Championship competition. Methods: A prospective cohort design was adopted to record match-related injuries during the European Touch Championships 2016. Injuries were collected from five countries and classified using the Orchard Sports Injury Classification (OSICS-10). Data were combined from all participating countries and injury incidence was recorded as number of injuries/1000 player hours. Results: A total of 135 injuries were recorded during the tournament with injury incidence calculated as 103.5 injuries per 1000 player match hours. Injuries were mainly recorded as transient (76%) occurring most frequently in the lower limb (69%). Injuries occurred more frequently on successive days, with exception to the final day of the tournament. The number of injuries was not different between the first and second half of matches and there was no relationship between the day of the tournament and the half of the match that injury occurred. Conclusion: Match injury incidence was 103.5 injuries per 100 player match hours. The most injured site was that of the lower limb, with the most common injury type reported as muscle/tendon injury. It is postulated that fatigue plays a role in injury incidence during a multiday tournament.

Highlights

  • Touch is a minimal contact sport originating in the southern hemisphere, originally developed as a training regime for rugby league players

  • The match injury incidence was 103.5 injuries per 1000 player match hours

  • This study provides information on the injury incidence, type and impact for elite amateur touch players in Europe

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Summary

Introduction

Touch (rugby/football) is a minimal contact sport originating in the southern hemisphere, originally developed as a training regime for rugby league players. In the last 10 years, the sport has expanded globally and has annual National and International competitions with the Touch World. The number of registered players in affiliated teams in the U.K. reached 20,000 in November 2014 [2]. There is no tackling, scrummaging or kicking of the ball in Touch as occurs in other codes of rugby. Touch is unique to other team sports, in that players compete in both single and Sports 2019, 7, 71; doi:10.3390/sports7030071 www.mdpi.com/journal/sports. Touch (rugby/football) is a minimal contact sport for which the type and incidence of injuries remains unknown in Europe. Objectives: To establish the incidence, severity and nature of injuries sustained during a four-day European Touch Championship competition

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