Slow rehab needed to combat bowling injury

A study by Otago University on bowlers' back injury problems has recommended long, slow rehabilitation, a greater focus on pre-season preparation and careful player management from the early teens.

The research is particularly timely from a New Zealand cricket point of view, with the last 12 months being punctuated by serious back injuries to several of the country's top bowlers.

Such injuries have forced Geoff Allott to quit the sport and Dion Nash, currently on tour in Sri Lanka, has admitted that if he broke down again he may also call it a day.

The study, held in conjunction with New Zealand Cricket by physiotherapist Graeme Nuttridge and associate professor Peter Milburn is believed to be the first major research on the overuse aspect of fast bowling injuries.

It said serious injury to fast bowlers in particular, was an problem at both senior and junior levels around the world.

The project monitored 43 Christchurch senior club bowlers and six first class bowlers from other areas and examined workloads and injury history, with participants completing questionnaires and keeping diaries of their bowling workload.

Nuttridge said the study highlighted a need for bowlers to rehabilitate well after injury.

"The high rate of injury in the first month of competition (61 percent of injuries occurred in this period, including all spinal stress fractures) suggests that injured bowlers may be returning to bowl too early," he said.

"Coaches and players need to realise that rehabilitation is a slow process, especially if players are recovering from stress fractures.

"We recommend a longer, slower build-up to match bowling, with bowlers doing more pre-season bowling, delivering plenty of balls but at a reduced intensity and gradually building up to top pace," Nuttridge added.

Another message from the study is that fast bowlers' workloads need to be carefully managed from an early age.

"It needs to be recognised right down to school level that fast bowlers are bowling too much. They need to be used sparingly while their bodies grow," he said.

Professor Milburn said changing bowling actions may not be the best option to avoid injury.

"There's been a big focus internationally on technique as a major cause of injury, but some of the bowlers in the study with correct actions suffered injury while others with supposedly unsafe actions remained injury free.

"So poor technique may be less of an evil than poor management," he said.

Mail Cricket Editor