SA Rugby Injury and Illness Surveillance and Prevention Project (SARIISPP): The Currie Cup Injury Surveillance Report 2022

Abstract

As part of the South African Rugby Injury and Illness Surveillance and Prevention Project (SARIISPP), the medical doctors and medical support staff of the respective teams recorded the injury data for the annual Currie Cup 2022 Premiership Division Competition (‘Currie Cup’). SARIISPP has been collecting and analysing these data annually since 2014 for the Currie Cup tournament. All seven teams are required to record the injuries that occur in each match and training session in the team throughout the season. The strength and conditioning coaches also recorded their training sessions for training exposure data throughout the season. By combining match exposure data, training exposure data and injury data, SARIISPP aims to obtain a more complete understanding of the factors contributing to player injury risk. The analysis reveals injury patterns and allows comparison across different years, tournaments, teams, the scientific literature, and internationally. During this investigation, areas of concern are identified and appropriate changes in the game, tournament structure, or medical support services are considered based on the evidence. Moreover, injury-specific interventions can be developed and implemented when the evidence supports such actions. This report uses injury burden and injury rate as key metrics for analysis. It is worth noting that even if teams maintain a low injury rate, injuries of high severity still impose a substantial burden on the team. Such injuries lead to a significant number of training and match days lost due to injury. This highlights the importance of collecting data on injury severity too rather than relying solely on injury rates. The injury rates are expressed as the mean (95% confidence interval) per 1000 player hours. The injury rate of Time-Loss injuries for the Currie Cup 2022 was 69 (57 to 81) injuries per 1000 player hours; the lowest injury rate recorded since 2015. This is however not significantly different to the international meta-analysis injury rate of 91 (77 to 106) injuries per 1000 player hours [1], and falls within the expected limits of season-to-season variation for the Currie Cup. This equates to 1.4 injuries per team per match, with an injury burden of 2139 days lost per 1000 player hours. The Cell C Sharks had the highest injury rate for Time-loss injuries throughout the Currie Cup 2022 tournament. DHL Western Province had a significantly lower injury rate in 2022 compared to their 2014-2021 tournament average. The Vodacom Blue Bulls had the highest average severity of 50 days absent per injury, whereas the Airlink Pumas had the lowest average severity of 13 days absent per injury. The Airlink Pumas, who subsequently won the tournament, also had the lowest injury rate compared to the other teams in the tournament. The average severity of Time-Loss injuries in the 2022 tournament was 31 days, which is marginally higher than the 27 days reported in the international meta-analysis [1]. The median injury severity of all Time-Loss injuries was 19 days, with 25% of injuries lasting 10 days or less and 25% of injuries lasting 44 days or more due to injury. The most common injury type observed during the 2022 Currie Cup tournament was ligament sprain, followed by muscle (rupture/strain/tear) injuries and central nervous system injuries, which ranked second and third, respectively. The shoulder, head, and ankle were the most injured body locations. Shoulder injuries increased by six per cent since the 2021 season. The number and incidence of concussions also increased in the 2022 Currie Cup tournament with an injury incidence of 10 (5 to 14) injuries per 1000 player hours. Being Tackled accounted for the highest number of injuries in the 2022 Currie Cup tournament followed by Open Play and Tackling. A total of 61 Time-Loss training injuries were sustained in the Currie Cup 2022. Among all the Time-Loss injuries incurred, 34% occurred during training. This equates to an incidence of 2 (1.5 to 2.5) injuries per 1000 training hours which is lower than the injury incidence of 3 (2 to 4) injuries per 1000 training hours reported in the meta-analysis [1]. Time-Loss training injuries resulted in an average severity of 34 days absent.