Objectives Report two-years of training injury data in senior and academy professional rugby league. Design Prospective cohort study. Method Match and training time-loss injuries and exposure data were recorded from two-seasons of the European Super League competition. Eleven/12 (2021) and 12/12 (2022) senior and 8/12 (2021) and 12/12 (2022) academy teams participated. Training injuries are described in detail and overall match injuries referred to for comparison only. Results 224,000 training exposure hours were recorded with 293 injuries at the senior (mean [95% confidence interval]; 3[2-3] per 1000h) and 268 academy level (2 [2-3] per 1000h), accounting for 31% and 40% of all injuries (i.e., matches and training). The severity of training injuries (senior: 35 [30-39], academy: 36 [30-42] days-lost) was similar to match injuries. Lower-limb injuries had the greatest injury incidence at both levels (senior: 1.85 [1.61-2.12], academy: 1.28 [1.08-1.51] per 1000h). Head injuries at the academy level had greater severity (35 [25-45] vs. 18 [12-14] days-lost; p<0.01) and burden (17 [16-18] vs. 4[4-5] days-lost per 1000h; p=0.02) than senior level. At the senior level, the incidence of contact injuries was lower than non-contact injuries (risk ratio: 0.29 [0.09-0.88], p=0.02). Conclusion Training injuries accounted for about a third of injuries, with similar injury severity to match-play. Within training there is a higher rate of non-contact vs. contact injuries. Whilst current injury prevention interventions target matches, these data highlight the importance of collecting high quality training injury data to develop and evaluate injury prevention strategies in training.
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