POINT BREAK
There’s no doubt rugby has been cruel to a number of those who have given it all they had. The sport at the highest level has broken some players - almost arbitrarily deciding to inflict untold damage on their bodies.
There are, across the world, significant numbers of former professionals who don’t move so well when they first get out of bed.
Some of them don’t move so well at all–their major joints irreparably damaged from years of high impact collisions.
Some will look okay, but know they will never be able to do anything like ski with their kids, or even join in a family game of touch.
Their bodies work okay in straight lines and low pace, but can’t handle any rapid change of direction.
The sacrifice can be huge for some. A professional career may deliver almost untold financial riches but there is a hidden cost of chronic pain and a near debilitating lack of mobility.
Former All Black Isaia Toeava painted a somewhat bleak picture in this regard when he told a French newspaper in June that he isn’t convinced he’ll be able to walk by the time he is 50.
“For 80 minutes, you try to crush the guy in front and he does the same, he tries to crush you,” said Toeava, who played 75 Super Rugby games as well as 30 tests before he joined French club Clermont.
“What impact will all these rugby pro years have on my body in the medium term? I hope I can still walk at 50-yearsold. Sometimes, I doubt it.
“Rugby is the sport I love, but the sacrifice [it] imposes is great. I know my sport too well and it destroys the body.”
There’s a raft of statistics coming out of the UK–the only country to consistently track trends–to show that injuries are increasing.
Each year the RFU in conjunction with the Rugby Players’ Association
