Developing a prehabilitation programme in a collision sport: a model developed within English premiership rugby union football

Rudi A. Meir, Southern Cross University
Wayne Diesel, Charlton Athletic Football Club
Edward Archer, Action Professionals Ltd.

Abstract

Many sports involve contact that can result in significant injury to participants. In addition, by their very nature, the vast majority of sports have inherent injury risks that can result from the most fundamental of movements, e.g., running, sprinting, accelerating, stepping and changing direction, landing, throwing, etc. However, there is evidence within the literature that it may be possible to reduce the incidence of the most common injuries by the systematic targeting of vulnerable areas of the body. This article outlines a prehabilitation model developed as part of the strength and conditioning program in an English professional rugby union club.