RUGBY players who suffer injuries similar to car-crash victims while playing the sport have been offered a better chance of recovery, thanks to research led by the University of Derby.
Professor Nick Draper, university head of life sciences, and PhD student Angus Lindsay have designed a way of testing the impact on the players themselves.
The project – a collaboration between the University of Derby and University of Canterbury in New Zealand – has been investigating the impact on Canterbury rugby players for two years, working with researchers at the New Zealand Rugby Union and the Canterbury Health laboratories.
The New Zealand team found damage to Canterbury rugby players after games were in the range expected from serious trauma.
A set of biochemical tests was carried out to measure the level of damage using only urine and saliva, eradicating the need for blood tests, enabling them to investigate 44 samples per game – before and after the game for each player.
Prof Draper said: “Our research measured several bio-chemicals in the urine and saliva to gain a global view of how players responded to the physical stress of an individual game. For instance, when a player damages a muscle, a bio-chemical marker of this damage can be traced in the urine using high-performance liquid chromatography.
“We can then interpret this to examine the extent of such damage.
“During the research, the measurements tested the level of muscle damage, inflammation, immune resistance and mental stress. The measurements can be used to assist coaches and medical staff to manage players’ recovery and training during different phases of competition.”
Article source: http://www.espnscrum.com/premiership-2014-15/rugby/story/239007.html
University of Derby leads research on rugby injuries
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