Sports injuries in the game of hurling. A one-year prospective study.

A prospective study of hurling injuries was conducted over the 8 months of one season on 74 players. These athletes averaged 4.30 +/- 2.58 hours per week of training and 1.15 +/- 0.21 hours per week of matches. Mean time of injury was 1.20 +/- 2.53 days in the hospital, 20.34 +/- 19.25 days off sport, and 13.34 +/- 17.25 days of restricted activity. Together this injury time amounts to 14.3% of the season. There were 92 match- and 43 training-related injuries, giving 342.47 injuries per 10,000 hours of matches and 43.83 injuries per 10,000 hours of training. Overall, there were 369.9 days of injury per 1000 hours of participation. The most common type of injury was muscle strain (24.4% of the 135 total injuries). The hamstrings was the most common site of strain, accounting for 41% of these injuries. Contusions comprised 16.3% of the injuries and sprains comprised 15.6%. The most frequently injured sites were the finger (13%), hamstrings (12%), back (11%), head (9%), and knee and ankle (9%). Forty-one percent of the injuries were attributed to foul play. The results of the study suggest that the incidence of injuries in hurling is high and may be attributed to poor conditioning, poor protection, and lack of enforcement of the rules.