Time to halt the carnage as battle injuries mount

HAVING boned up on my orthopaedics and biokinetics and got a handle on rotator cuffs, AC joints and anterior cruciate ligaments over a good number of years, even I was taken aback to come across a shocking new rugby injury.

James O'Connor, the exceedingly talented young Aussie, who must have been suffering from temporary insanity when he decided to move to the Melbourne Rebels, was involved in a sickening mid-air collision with Wallaby teammate Berrick Barnes, playing for the Waratahs.

O'Connor was clearly in a lot of pain and when the Monday reports, which these days are more like casualty bulletins, filtered in it transpired that he had suffered what was described as a "lacerated liver."

O'Connor had been accidentally kneed by Barnes as they both leapt for the ball, but the extent of his injury is such that he might be sidelined for six weeks.

This was obviously a freak incident but it is nevertheless symptomatic of a scandalous reality that rugby officials appear to be turning a blind eye to - a pandemic of serious injuries players are being exposed to.

Each week, we are accosted by a spate of Smashed Stormers, Crocked Crusaders, Battered Bulls, Limping Lions, Shattered Sharks, Bruised Blues and Hurt Hurricanes headlines as journalists record the carnage.

The Stormers, for instance, had to pick their fourth captain in just their ninth match this weekend as injuries sidelined Schalk Burger, Jean de Villiers and Duane Vermeulen, before Andries Bekker, who himself had been injured, was hastened through his recuperation so that he could lead the team.

The skippers were not the only ones on the list of wounded as Gio Aplon and Nick Koster were also forced to return home.

All the other teams have continually reported a long list of casualties. The champion Reds, the Sharks, the Crusaders and the Lions went into the tournament sans key players because of the scars of previous battles, while the underresourced Australian outfits, battling to overcome playing stocks that have clearly been spread too thin because of the insistence of an additional team in their conference (the Rebels), were forced call for volunteers from leagues far removed from the intensity of Super Rugby.

There can be little doubt that the plethora of serious injuries is a direct result of players being expected to play too many games at too high a level, while often being required to play while masking injuries because there is no time for proper recovery.

Medical experts have been warning of dire consequences for years now and yet nothing seems to be done about it - reminiscent of the underlying theme of the cult movie They Shoot Horses, Don't They? in which the ruthlessness of Hollywood moguls was laid bare.

Injuries have become too serious and too frequent to ignore, but caught in a trap of having to provide more and more matches (or product, as it is referred to) to extract underpinning funds so that pay television stations can fill their channels, rugby administrators are treating the players like cannon fodder.

However, it is a Catch 22 situation. More games mean bigger squads, greater risk of injury, a falling off of standards and a continuation of the vicious circle.

The current fixture list containing massively forceful local derbies, followed by test matches on successive Saturdays, more intense provincial local clashes and then the new (Four Nations) Rugby Championship is physically unsustainable.

Players, represented by mostly ineffectual associations or unions are deeply unhappy about it but unwilling to risk their income, so they will continue being played into the ground.

It is my contention that the slaughter cannot be allowed to continue. The day cannot be far away that players, faced with ever shorter careers, revolt and simply say "enough is enough - stop this madness".