Training injuries in elite men's senior and academy (Super League) rugby league; an analysis of 224,000 exposure-hours

Report two-years of training injury data in senior and academy professional rugby league. Prospective cohort study. 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. 224,000 training exposure hours were recorded with 293 injuries at the senior (mean [95 % confidence interval]; 3 [2–3] per 1000 h) and 268 academy level (2 [2–3] per 1000 h), 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 1000 h). Head injuries at the academy level had greater severity (35 [25–45] vs. 18 [12–14] days-lost; p