1. What are the most common hurling injuries?
2. Are Hurlers less fit than Gaelic footballers?

This study followed 4 inter-county teams, a total of 127 hurlers, for a full season.

82% of players were injured during the season. That is 204 injuries to 104 players.

In a squad of 30-32 players, one can expect 4 players to be injured in any given week.

90% of these injuries were mild-moderate i.e. they took 1-4 weeks to recover.

The period when the greatest percentages of players were injured was mid-season-April.

Over 60% of match play injuries occurred in the second half more so in dry conditions.

70% of injuries were to the lower limb.

Muscle strain was the most common injury. Hamstring injury topped the poll at 16.5 % followed by quadriceps strain or haematoma, then ankle, groin, and calf.

There was a 7.4% incidence of fracture, mainly to fingers and thumbs.

How does injured tissue in Hurling compare to other sports?

Comparing hurling to other field sports

Incidence of injury per 1000 hours of training and per 1000 hours of match play

Comparing hurling to other sports that use sticks

With the exception of Rugby League, hurlers are more susceptible to injury compared to other field sports. The incidence of injury is much higher than other sports that use sticks and researchers argue this could be related to larger playing field of hurling compared to ice hockey or lacrosse. The incidence of injury in training is similar to Gaelic football and soccer but the match play injury rate is much higher in hurling.

There is an argument that hurlers are less fit and have poorer strength and conditioning profiles. A study looking at the physiological profiles of elite hurlers reported a higher percentage body fat, lower speed endurance, lower estimated VO2max and lower abdominal endurance compared to elite soccer players. In comparison with Gaelic footballers, Hurlers showed lower speed endurance and reduced upper body strength.

However, hurling is more a skill-based than strength-based sport. By the age of 14 or 15 years, most hurlers have achieved the golden 10,000 hour expert rule. It is a sport where a small ball weighing 120 grams travels through the air at speeds of up to 160 km/hr and must be balanced on a stick while running at speed, caught and struck in the air while being tackled. Acknowledging it is a skill-based sport, it still has a disproportionate share of match injury, predominantly muscle strain not impact injuries. Perhaps if we improve the strength and conditioning profiles of our hurlers we may see a decrease in their injuries, prolonging their careers and maintaining their skill on the pitch in our unique national sport.

1. Murphy et al 2012 “Injury in elite county-level hurling: a prospective study” Br J Sports Med 2012;46:2 138-142 Published Online First: 19 October 2010 doi:10.1136/bjsm.2010.072132

2. McIntyre 2005 “A comparison of the physiological profiles of elite Gaelic footballers, hurlers, and soccer players” Br J Sports Med 2005;39:7 437-439 doi:10.1136/bjsm.2004.013631

3. Murphy et al 2012 “Incidence of Injury in Gaelic Football: A 4-Year Prospective Study” Am J Sports Med September 2012 vol. 40 no. 9 2113-2120

1. Develop a regular sleep pattern

Lack of sleep and disrupted sleep are both associated with Headache and Migraine. Insufficient sleep is a significant stressor to your body and sensitises the nerves that are responsible for switching on your headache. Identify if you are getting enough sleep and address anything that might be disrupting this.

2. Schedule exercise into your week

Exercise is scientifically proven to be one of the top preventative drugs you can take to decrease the frequency of your headaches. If you don’t exercise regularly, start slowly with something you are comfortable with, such as brisk walking. As exercise becomes part of your regular routine you can gradually increase the intensity of exercise. Regular moderate intensity exercise trains your body to produce very strong natural painkillers that reduce the frequency and intensity of your headaches.

3. Examine how you react to stress

There will always be stressors in your life that you cannot control. You can however examine and learn to adapt how you respond to stress.

Stress relates to your headache and migraine in two ways

A. It changes your posture; you lift your shoulders towards your ears, your chin pokes forward, you start to breathe with your neck muscles. All of this sensitises the muscles, joints and nerves that refer pain into your head

B. Stress also induces a chemical change in your body. This lowers your pain threshold so things that previously wouldn’t affect you now succeed in switching on your headache.

4. Review your food and diet intake

Going for long periods without food has been consistently shown to trigger headache and migraine. This is something that you control by ensuring to eat regular meals and bring food with your to be prepared for times when you might not have access to food. Approximately 20% of headache sufferers have a food that triggers their migraine, most commonly red wine, cheese, chocolate and dairy,

5. Keep a diary

Keeping a headache diary is an invaluable tool that enables you to keep track of frequency of headaches, possible triggers, medication use etc. It then allows you to monitor any changes that are helping you gain more control over your headache or migraine.

There are many other things you can do to help your headaches. We endevour to provide you with information that will help you manage your headache and migraine problem.

We will provide future articles on the role of the neck in headache and migraine and how treatment of this area can provide relief to your headaches.

In the meantime please feel free to contact us for advice or an appointment on 0851670574 or info@proactivephysio.ie