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Doctor in search of remedy to mounting injury list
Ahead of the Four Nations, England team doctor Chris Brookes tells Dave Craven how attitudes to injuries must change to ensure the game's stars have a greater chance of shining on such a stage.
REMINDING grown men of the virtues of personal cleanliness is not something which immediately springs to mind when considering the role of England rugby league team doctor.
Diagnosing and treating major injuries would be a far more obvious job description but Chris Brookes explained there is much more to his duties in camp ahead of the Gillette Four Nations.
"Part of my public health message to the lads is make sure they wash their hands after training, whether it's been outside with the ball or inside on weights," he said.
"They take the mick out of me unmercifully, putting their hands under the water and asking 'am I doing it properly, doc?'
"But any piece of information that helps them become better is important."
Brookes conceded it was only later he discovered there was no soap at England's training ground in Manchester but the idea behind his promptings is transparent – do everything you can to maintain your fitness and well-being.
That is why, on a larger scale, the experienced doctor has called for a wide-reaching new approach to recording injury data in a bid to prevent rugby league players spending more time on the sidelines.
On the eve of the Four Nations, and at the end of another fatiguing Super League season, the issue of player welfare is never far from debate.
With the intensity of the sport constantly rising, England, Australia, New Zealand and France have all suffered inevitable withdrawals before the action kicks off.
Brookes, who has led either England or Great Britain's medical team every year since the 2001 Tri Nations, insists a national database has to be initiated to start addressing the problems.
"We have athletes who are bigger, stronger and fitter than ever before," he said.
"The force of the collision is such that it is inevitable there are going to be injuries associated wit that.
"We want the athletes to become the physical athletes they are but that comes with a price.
"Personally, I think what we need to do as a sport is set up an injury management system where data is actually recorded to include the type of injury, when and how it is happening and seeing if there is any pattern.
"At the moment, we've all been saying there are more injuries and they are getting worse but we have no evidence to prove it.
"We don't have a record of each individual injury and we need that for a whole load of reasons. If we had the data, we could help conditioners work with players to strengthen areas which might need improvement and work at ways of reducing these serious injuries from happening in the first place."
Although the current England playing squad is much-changed from last year's World Cup, Brookes continues his long affinity with the international set-up.
After tomorrow evening's meeting with France, next week's game against Australia will be his 40th 'cap'.
"Tony Smith calls me the white-haired veteran," said the 50 year-old, whose first involvement was on Great Britain Academy's tour of France in 1998.
"Kevin Sinfield and Gaz Carvell, who are in this squad now, were part of that trip. It was a good squad with Stuart Fielden, Paul Deacon and Paul Wellens, too, so good that Leon (Pryce) missed the cut."
After serving in the 2000 World Cup with Ireland, Brookes was brought on board by David Waite for Great Britain duty the following year and has been a familiar sight at every international competition since.
Having started at Salford City Reds in 1997, he was also club doctor for Bradford Bulls, his first campaign of 2003 being the year they won the treble.
Brookes later followed Odsal chief Brian Noble, whom he also worked with at Great Britain, to Wigan Warriors but will not be doing likewise at Celtic Crusaders.
"I'm a man of my word – I told Wigan I'd do three years with them and I've only done one," he said.
It was with Great Britain though that Brookes witnessed the worst injury he has seen on a rugby field.
Bradford's Paul Deacon required major surgery after being hit in the face by Nigel Vagana during Great Britain's 2005 Tri Nations game against New Zealand.
However, in the immediate aftermath in the Galpharm changing rooms there were fears for the scrum-half's life as Brookes and his team desperately battled the "torrential" flow of blood flooding from broken blood vessels inside Deacon's mouth.
"I have never seen anything like that before," he recalled. "You can see from my face when we're leaving the field how serious it is. You can see the worry in the face of our trainer, Mike Forshaw, too.
"I was fortunate that night I had a wonderful support staff and the other thing that helped was knowing the player – Deacs.
"We'd first met on that Academy tour in '98. I knew he was a straight-froward guy who would allow us to get on.
"The haemorrhaging was massive and we had to stop the bleeding. I told him I was going to thread a string down his nose so it pulled back in his mouth and then blow it up like a balloon. There could have been absolute panic with someone else but Deacs was fine."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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