The real cost of sports injuries…

Sports injuries. What is the true cost? An inevitable part of sports at all levels. Especially the top level. Though what is the true cost of injury at these levels? We can assume that this places a huge burden on the player, the team, the player’s family & support network, the club, stakeholders, CEOs, managers, medical & performance staff, the sponsors, the fans & even for different reasons, the competition. We can easily assume that the longer the player is sidelined, the greater this burden becomes on this entity. So how can we prevent that? Are we doing our absolute best at preventing this burden & exhausting every possible avenue of prevention to eliminate the foreseen costs of injury after it occurs? Yes, some injuries are unavoidable, that is the price we pay for competitive & contact sports that encompass external factors & forces. But how can we make sure that when players are injured, they return to the filed as fast as possible? Are we truly exhausting every tool in our medical professional belt? This is something that over my years of clinical practice I have sought after endlessly for my athletes, my colleague’s clients & personally. Of course, we look at all the 1%ers, at the top level, no stone is or should be left upturned, especially when the impact of injured players takes a toll on all aspects of the team & potentially, its success. So, lets address the widely utilized, & the potentially underutilized tools in our arsenal.

In a recent article published by BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine in March 2020, an average English Premier League (EPL) team lost approximately ￡45 million per season due to injury related decrements in performance. This estimation is based on the assessment of the team’s underachievement due to injured players (￡36 million) & on a direct calculation of salaries paid to injured players (￡9 million). Understandably these numbers are greater than the highest played disciplines of first grade Australian sports, as Football (Soccer) was ranked #6 highest paying sports in the world on June 5th, 2020, but the costs are relative to discipline & country. With the NRL season back underway following a forced de-training period due to the global pandemic, we are already seeing a spike in injuries with over 50 NRL first grade players either sidelined, or suffering from a reported injury on 25th June, 2020. This early into the season, how will this effect the teams financially, but also on the competition ladder!?

Not only is there a heavy financial burden attached to the injury rate, but in the same article, the 2016-2017 season injuries impact on EPL teams achievements were compared with some questionable results. Number of injuries across the 20 teams ranged from 35 to 82 in one season! With 1151 injuries recorded in the league, totaling a combined 28,204 days lost due to injury during that season. Manchester United for example had an expected ranking of first, but due to 6th highest number of injuries with a combined total of 1262 lost days, lost 24 league points ranking 6th. Not to mention, this is the 6th highest paid sport in the world, surrounded by some of the highest paid athletes, highest paid sports medical scientists & performance staff, with some of the greatest advancements in sport science technology implemented & one of the most popular leagues in world wide sport. The pressure placed on these teams & players is huge. With similar numbers of first grade teams in Australian competition, sports including NRL, AFL & A-League, would we be seeing numbers much the same, & if so at what cost?

Our systems are good, most first grade teams employ a team of medical staff to address components of athletic performance, recovery, and injury prevention. Coaches, physiotherapists, podiatrists, massage therapists, sport scientists, performance coaches, S&C coaches, nutritionists, doctors & more. Our protocols are good, strict diet & supplement regimes, movement based prehabilitation therapies & training, sport specific training, running, biomechanical and movement based analysis, manual therapy for recovery & strength training. All of which, & more are the bread & butter to professional athletes, the brick & mortar pillars to injury prevention & performance. But with numbers as high as this, contributing to those sorts of results, clubs have a strong economic incentive to invest in injury prevention and rehabilitation systems & programs. GPS tracking systems, video systems, comprehensive biomechanical screening & assessing devices. Following suit of the NFL, NBA & MBL (ranked 1st, 5th & 9th respectively in the words highest paid sports) teams including the Boston Celtics, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Orioles, New York Jets, Los Angeles Clippers and the Houston Rockets now heavily involved in software driven analytical intuitive gym equipment & the use of medical rehabilitation & performance technology including high power laser, Tecar therapy, magnetotherapy, ultrasound & more.

So are our systems the best they can be? What is the true cost of sporting injuries…

George Milner – Milner Biomedical