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.

What was needed was a scheduled training calendar with regular recovery intervals, rest periods and a closed season, he said. “The Australian Football League has been down this track year ago. It’s not as if we need to re-invent the wheel. Last year something like €9m was spent on treating injuries. We have got to consider the health and safety issues, otherwise we can be challenged on it (in the courts), if not tomorrow, then down the road.”

He also warned of the danger of players being misdiagnosed while others are suffering disc injuries because of inappropriate weight programmes in the gym, he added.

Dr O’Neill told delegates that there was now an evolving injury surveillance being carried out in one Dublin hospital as a pilot study. “We don’t have hard statistics, but we have hard evidence,” he said. “The prevention of player burnout through over-training and over-use injuries is critical.”

While Antrim chairman Dr John McSparron strongly supported a proposal from the committee to complete the club championships in the calendar year — gaining support from several counties — the idea wasn’t acceptable to the bulk of delegates.

Croke Park Games Manager Pat Daly accepted the sentimentality attached to playing the All-Ireland club finals on St Patrick’s Day, but argued that it made more sense to complete the championships before Christmas. “You can’t have the championships meandering for 11 months.”

Offaly chairman Pat Teehan agreed, saying that seven members of the Offaly senior squad who were involved with Birr, enjoyed only a four-week break from hurling over 22 months.

However, Kilkenny chairman Paul Kinsella said that for any team involved in the All-Ireland senior hurling final in September, the effects of an end-of-year deadline would also be very challenging. It would mean players being involved in games in nine weekends out of 13 up to mid-December. The proposal failed because it failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority.

* A BAN on round-robin systems in provincial competitions was agreed, as were restrictions of the playing minor championship games around the time of examinations.