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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Exercise Physiology
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1395138
This article is part of the Research Topic Training Load in Sport: Current Challenges and Future Perspectives View all 12 articles

Relationship between the Contact Load and Time-loss Injuries in Rugby Union

Provisionally accepted
Yusuke Iwasaki Yusuke Iwasaki 1,2Yuki Someya Yuki Someya 1,2*Masashi Nagao Masashi Nagao 2,3Shojiro Nozu Shojiro Nozu 2,4Yuki Shiota Yuki Shiota 1,2Yuji Takazawa Yuji Takazawa 1,2,4
  • 1 Graduate School of Health and Sports Science, Juntendo University, Chiba, Japan
  • 2 Department of Sports Medicine, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan
  • 3 Innovative Medical Technology Research & Development Center, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan
  • 4 Institute of Health and Sports Science and Medicine, Juntendo University, Chiba, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: Quantifying and managing the matches and training loads of players is important for injury prevention. As rugby union is a full-contact sport and frequent contact injuries occur, it might also be important to quantify and manage players' contact loads. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between contact load and injury incidence in elite rugby union players.Methods: Forty-eight elite rugby union players (27.0±3.5 years) in Japan were monitored during one season (8 months). The contact load, an index of training load, was evaluated as collision count and collision load measured using a global positioning system device, and then calculated using the acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR) based on the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA). The association between the EWMA-ACWR of contact load and injury incidence was analyzed using generalized estimating equations.Results: Of the 58 injuries during one season, 70.7% were contact injuries. Collision counts and collision load calculated by EWMA-ACWR were associated with the risk of injury (p<0.01 both), with the odds ratios were 4.20 (95% confidence interval [CI]:1.74-10.11) and 4.44 (95% Cl: 1.95-10.13), respectively.Contact load calculated using EWMA-ACWR was associated with injury in elite rugby union players.

    Keywords: Contact sports, injury, Monitoring, Exponentially weighted moving average, acute: chronic workload ratio, GPS

    Received: 03 Mar 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Iwasaki, Someya, Nagao, Nozu, Shiota and Takazawa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yuki Someya, Graduate School of Health and Sports Science, Juntendo University, Chiba, Japan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.