Young stars injured due to over-use, expert says

THERE is empirical evidence of the dangerous effects of over-training and over-use of players, the outgoing chairman of the GAA’s Burnout Task Force, Dr Pat O’Neill told Saturday’s Special Congress in Croke Park.

Using X-ray pictures to illustrate the range of injuries which players suffered from, he revealed that medics were seeing players as young as 15 and 16 with groin injuries which were potentially career-threatening.

He warned that some young players were training several times a week and some played two games in a day. The end result was that they were suffering over-use injuries during their peak skeletal growth, in other words before they were fully developed physically.