https://soundcloud.com/lappy-bird/player-welfare-radio-mixdown This radio piece discusses the welfare of young athletes and the increasing injury toll of young players across numerous sporting codes. Transcript Newsreader’s Introduction (not recorded) Australia’s brightest football stars continue to be dismantled by injury, with current and future representative stars condemned to the sideline due to long term injuries. Nick Wright has the details. (Recorded reporting)
(“Sport Musik” from Jamendo plays under script) There are some footballers that take your breath away. (“Sport Musik” continues for two seconds before fading under script) The awe of what they are capable of doing on the field mesmerises you, no different to art or music. (“Sport Musik” continues for three seconds before fading under script) Like Darren Lockyer, Jonathan Thurston and Israel Folau, these athletes defy belief and have revolutionised football. (“Sport Musik” continues for three seconds before fading out) But how many are we not seeing? The ones who promise so much but body strain, muscle tears and damaged joints end their careers before they even begin? It is a story Danni Wilson knows all too well. (“The Little Voice” from Jamendo plays for three seconds before fading under script) Praised for his tireless work ethic by his coaches, Mr Wilson was one of the brightest football prospects on the Sunshine Coast, a mainstay at Outside Centre for the Sunshine Coast Stingrays schoolboy rugby union side. However a hamstring injury in 2012 sidelined him temporarily before a training mishap in an attempt for an early return to the field caused further damage and his ambitious dreams were put on hold. (CART) “Progressing in football was definitely on the cards for me. Rugby had always been such an important part of my life before the injury, but unfortunately that’s just football. I suffered a grade two hamstring strain while competing beach sprints for a HPE class. After a while on the sidelines I tried to come back to training early only for the injury just to flare up. It was a really disappointing thing given it was my senior year, it was just one of those years I suppose." RUNS: 22 seconds (Music stops, natural sound of junior sporting event plays for 2 seconds before fading under script) The consistency in which potential stars such as Mr Wilson are succumbing to the strain on their bodies is alarming, with major concerns arising regarding how youngsters are being coached in injury prevention and rehabilitation. The 2015 National Rugby League season is evidence of this, with sides forced to call on more players before the season’s halfway point than they did during their 2014 campaigns. Fifteen players have already suffered season ending injuries while 23 year old Canberra Raiders centre, Haydon Hodge, has been forced to retire due to a chronic knee injury. It has been a long time coming. The 2014 NRL season saw the code's International and State of Origin stars miss 64 matches due to injury, almost three times more than in 2013 and a significant rise from the 17 matches missed in 2012. Miguel Rojano is a leading fitness trainer, physiologist and gym owner on the Sunshine Coast and he has seen firsthand that a combination of image conscious boys and a lack of education are contributing to the downfall of Australia's brightest prospects. (Lose natural sound) (CART) “The problem is the testosterone, the egos. I realised watching the kids that they wanted to have the big arms and the muscles, and so then they’d go straight to the bench press, the bicep curls. Now here I am with these injuries from doing all this silly stuff, something has to change. But I think the bigger problem, away from image, is the education. We’ve got parents who’ll go to the physio and spend a hundred bucks and not think twice about it, they’ll go to the doctor, they’ll go have an eight-thousand dollar surgery, but they don’t quite get the importance of prehabilitation.” RUNS: 33 seconds (Resume natural sound of junior sporting event) Mr Wilson is all too familiar with this theory, the damage he carries still a constant reminder, and he agrees that rushing the injury served as a major contributor to the injury’s recurrence. (Lose natural sound) (CART) “I definitely misjudged the rehabilitation process, which became significant in my injury’s extension. Even now I can’t run as fast or as hard as I used to or cause too much strain on the muscle.” RUNS: 11 seconds (Resume natural sound of junior sporting event) The extent of the injuries varies amongst each individual, and while the severity of the injury may not be evident upon first assessment, extensive stress could turn an injury from a nuisance into an occupational kryptonite. Tracey O’Connor is the Managing Director of Assist First Aid and she sees recurrent injuries on a daily basis and fears that young athletes will only care for the injury in the moment as opposed to treating and rehabilitating the injury over time to avoid the reoccurrence. (Lose natural sound) (CART) “My biggest concern is that a lot of these young athletes are in the process of growing and they’re really putting a considerable strain on their system and we’re finding that they get to the age of 17, 18, 19 and a number of them even have to withdraw from their particular sport as a result of pushing themselves to their limits in those earlier formative years. There needs to be close monitoring of some of these athletes with regards to what sorts of injuries are presenting themselves and I think if someone starts to do that then that will start to tell us a story of where these injuries actually align.” RUNS: 34 seconds (Resume natural sound of junior sporting event) For Australian sport to prosper, our next era of star athletes need to be groomed in the correct manner or more talents such as Mr Wilson will never reach their full potential. (Natural sound of junior sporting event fades out) (Resume “the Little Voice” under script) As a plea for the game he grew up loving, Mr Wilson is stressing to Australia’s next line of sporting prodigies to seek guidance and treat their bodies with the respect they deserve. (CART) “If I could start the rehab process all over again I would definitely have researched more into the injury and I hope that others will learn from mistakes such as mine and treat their injuries delicately.” RUNS: 8 seconds It’s a hope that, for Australia to continue its sporting assault, needs to become a reality. (Music fades out) RUNS: 5 minutes 11 seconds
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