@article{ref1,
title="Incidence of concussion and time to return-to-play in the National Rugby League",
journal="Clinical journal of sport medicine",
year="2021",
author="Iverson, Grant L. and Gardner, Andrew J.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="OBJECTIVES: To examine the rates of concussion and recovery time over the course of 2 seasons of the National Rugby League (NRL). <br><br>DESIGN: Descriptive cohort study. SETTING: The NRL match play concussion injury surveillance system. PARTICIPANTS: All NRL players who participated in the 2017 and 2018 season. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The (1) frequency of sideline injury surveillance identified head impact events in real-time during the games, (2) frequency of head injury assessments conducted by the medical staff, (3) frequency of medically diagnosed concussions, (4) number of days to medical clearance to return-to-play, and (5) number of games missed after concussion. MAIN RESULTS: There were 472 head injury assessments conducted during the games and 149 medically diagnosed concussions over the course of 2 NRL seasons (1 concussion every 2.70 games). The median number of days until medical clearance was 6 (M = 6.85, SD = 8.03, interquartile range = 4-7; range = 0-79 days). There was a statistically significant difference in the number of days to be medically cleared to return to full contact or match play between seasons (U = 3517.00, P = 0.001), and the percentage of players medically cleared to return-to-play at 5 days after injury was 60.6% in 2017 and 27.6% in 2018. Most players (87.9%) did not miss a game after injury. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: There is approximately one concussion sustained for every 3 games in the NRL. Most players are medically cleared to return-to-play in 4 to 7 days.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1050-642X",
doi="10.1097/JSM.0000000000000965",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/JSM.0000000000000965"
}