There is a risk of getting injured when playing rugby. This may result in you missing out on playing rugby for a length of time and may also have many other consequences which if not addressed, can lead to a recurrent cycle of injury.

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Your nutrition during this time is absolutely critical to promote speedy recovery. Precise nutritional considerations will vary depending on the type of injury as well as the individual situation. However, a change in energy expenditure is common to all injury and this is exaggerated if you are unable to train for long periods of time.

Gaining fat mass and losing much needed muscle mass make rehabilitation more problematic. The additional fat gain places an extra load on the injured body part once training is resumed placing you at more risk for further injury. Thus central to rehabilitation is to avoid muscle mass loss and fat mass gain. This requires a combination of a modified eating plan and a rehabilitation training programme.

Practical tips:
1. To reduce your risk of injury when training or playing a match
Ensure that you consume carbohydrate with adequate fluid (e.g. a sports drink) to avoid fatigue during training/playing a match. Immediately after training or the match, have a recovery snack/drink to replenish muscle energy stores which helps repair any muscle damage (see Match nutrition and recovery).

Avoid alcohol immediately after a match and if injured, no alcohol should be consumed for 24-48 hours as it delays recovery by causing extra swelling and bleeding.

Note that inappropriate creatine use may cause an unnecessary load on the muscles of growing players increasing the risk of injury.

2. To reduce unwanted fat mass gain and prevent loss of muscle mass when injured:
Energy in should not exceed energy out. This means cutting back on total food intake especially concentrated sources of calories from foods that are typically used when training (e.g. sports drinks, bars, recovery snacks). Avoid eating out of boredom and resorting to high fat comfort foods like crisps, chocolates, cakes etc.

Your diet should focus on nutritious low fat foods such as low fat dairy and lean meats (good sources of protein), fresh fruit and vegetables, high fibre cereals and breads, and lean meats – all these foods are good sources of either protein, calcium, iron or vitamin C, which are essential to promote healing.

3. To keep to your nutrition plan if mobility is limited:
If you are immobilised, in plaster or on crutches you may not be able to shop for food or cook. In order to stick to your game plan, careful planning and the help from friends or family will be needed.

4. Head, neck and jaw injuries
If chewing or swallowing of foods is difficult, meal replacements and special foods may be needed but this should be calculated and prescribed by a sports dietician. - (Shelly Meltzer and Associates, consultant dieticians to SARugby)

Article used with permission from www.sarugby.net.
 

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