Victor Radley showed signs of convulsing/seizuring after suffering a concussion there. Despite the graphic nature of the incident the presence of immediate convulsions is not associated with adverse results (via scans/recovery time) or risk of future seizures. Hope he is OK Radley sitting up/communicating in the sheds, great news. Immediate convulsions rarely considered a factor when trying to classify concussion severity, or guiding treatment/return. prospects for recovery will be guided by the presence of the concussion rather than the convulsing

More NRL rule changes announced, some aim to further increase speed of the game & player fatigue. Was an increase in major injuries (5+ weeks recovery) with rule changes this season, but how much due to short prep time for teams (3 weeks) + COVID challenges? Some COVID challenges may still exist next season (gameday travel, limited support staff in bubble?), but definitely benefit in announcing changes with 3 months til Round 1 giving teams a chance to prepare/tailor training.

Hot topic lately, so time for a concussion/HIA thread.

The testing that we see the trainer performing on field, & the “HIA” the player undergoes off the field is part of the Sports Concussion Assessment Tool, or SCAT5. A useful resource:

bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjspor… So what is the “HIA”? Often more commonly used to describe the off field portion of the SCAT5 (even though assessment is performed on field too). A great video guide courtesy of the great @dr_ameeribrahim below:

Quick thread on Origin this year & injury risk. Firstly regular season stats, looking at turnarounds/days between games (7 days in Origin this year).
NRL injuries/1000 regular season hours:
7 day turnaround - 51.4
10 day turnaround - 58.3 So for a 3 game Origin series, expected injuries going by regular season injury rate:
7 days: 5.3 injuries
10 days: 6.1 injuries
Regular season games later in the year don’t have added risk, with no trend regarding injury rates & round in the season found in recent years.

With “Lisfranc” being the new NRL injury buzzword (following on from syndesmosis) thought a quick explainer thread was in order.
Lisfranc injury = injury to the ligaments/bones/joints of the midfoot (more commonly known in the past as a midfoot sprain) First described by Jacques Lisfranc, a field Dr in Napoleon’s army, to describe a foot injury commonly seen in soldiers who fell from their horse & foot got caught in the stirrups. In those times a Lisfranc injury was often treated by amputating the forefoot (remove the toes 🤭)

Plenty of discussion about reducing the interchange with reference to injury rates, fatigue and “bringing back the little man”. Wanted to discuss what evidence suggests a reduction in interchange would do to injury prevalence (spoiler: it’s not set in stone). Thread ⬇️ There’s 2 main schools of thought:
- Increased interchange = ⬆️ speed & power of players, ⬆️ collision forces so traumatic injury rates ⬆️
- Decreased interchange = ⬆️ fatigue, players exposed to risk events when fatigued, decision making impaired, ⬆️ soft tissue strain rates