This year sees an unbeaten England in 2016 seeing if they can continue 2017 where they left off.
ISEH's Dr Kal Parmar is the Club Doctor at Leicester Tigers Rugby, who
have a large contingent of players who’ll be training and playing with
the National Teams, not only England, but also Italy and Wales. They
also have some Southern Hemisphere players who’ll likely be going to
their respective National Team camps.
Dr Parmar said "It’s a challenging time for the Club as, losing our best players, we rely on our strength in depth and academy players stepping up to get us through at a time approaching the business end of the season, when positions in the table and play off places start to be decided.
Injuries are always there in contact sports and especially in rugby - but we’re used to it as a medical team. We injury manage every player to see what we can safely manage with modified training; we give them limited game time when reintegrating from injury and liaise with the National Team medics and coaches so that the player is at the centre of all the decision making.
Concussion has been very much up there in the media; we’ve always known about concussion and I’m glad to see it’s being given the importance it deserves. There have been a lot of initiatives in the last few years; video technology, with slow motion replays and dedicated spotters are now common place at games. ISEH have developed a concussion clinic which is being used more and more by, not only Premiership clubs, but also from lower league and amateur clubs. Also we’ve seen athletes from different sports such as boxing using the concussion clinic pathway.
One question I always get asked is “are the injuries bigger and are the players too big?” Taken into context, the injuries rate is very similar; the players are by in large full time professional and therefore are bigger, stronger and fitter than in the amateur era. There is greater awareness of injury, especially concussion, with larger medical teams and more accurate diagnosis. The advent of Sports and Exercise Medicine as a specialty with more sports doctors within medical teams also helps. The ISEH has many Premiership rugby doctors working there where we see not only the professional players but also semi professional and amateur players at all levels.
I’m sure the upcoming six nations will be a great spectacle and showcase for the sports of rugby."