- Professor Pollock's son Hamish, 14, suffered a shattered cheekbone
- And at just eight years old, he’d broken his nose
- Benjamin Robinson, 14, died in 2011 after he collapsed on the pitch
- Professor Pollock has spent a decade researching the risks of playing rugby
- She has written a book for parents to warn them of the dangers
Professor Pollock's son Hamish, 14, suffered a shattered cheekbone playing rugby (stock picture)
When the phone rang at work, that Wednesday afternoon 11 years ago, I thought it would be a routine call. Instead, I got the news no mother ever wants to hear: my elder son, Hamish, then just 14, was in hospital, badly injured. He had been hurt while he should have been safe at school, playing a rugby match.
Feeling sick, I rushed to be by his side. He had a shattered cheekbone, caused by contact with another player’s knee. His face looked distorted and his eye socket was hanging down.
He was in a lot of pain and he couldn’t eat or drink except through a straw. In addition, he was concussed and disoriented. The surgeon said his injury was equivalent to that suffered by someone going through a car windscreen.
As a mother, naturally I was horrified, but seeing his battered form stirred another thought, equally disturbing. I am a public health doctor — Professor of Public Health Research and Policy at Queen Mary, University of London. How common, I wondered, were such injuries in children? And how dangerous a sport was rugby? Should it be something that children are forced to play at school?
After all, it wasn’t the first time Hamish had been injured playing rugby. A year earlier, he’d broken his leg, with the long-term result that he still has to wear a special insole in his shoe.
And at just eight years old, he’d broken his nose. When he broke his leg and cheekbone we were living in Edinburgh, and I thought of all the young boys and teenagers I saw in plaster on the streets, and hobbling up and down the school drive. Most of all, I thought of my old friend, a fellow doctor, who was injured in a rugby match aged 24, leaving him paralysed from the neck down.
Now, after a decade of research into the risks of playing rugby at school, I have published a book for parents: Tackling Rugby, What Every Parent Should Know About Injuries.
Rugby is a very dangerous game, which should not be compulsory in any British school, says Professor Pollock
What I discovered while writing it was both shocking and extremely worrying, and it led me to the conclusion that rugby is a very dangerous game, which should not be compulsory in any British school.
According to the International Rugby Board, there are 1,900 rugby union clubs in England, with 362,319 pre-teen male players and 698,803 teen male players —1,061,122 in total.
School rugby injuries can be severe. At the more minor end are bruises and sprains. Then there are more serious injuries: fractures, torn ligaments, dislocated shoulders. Most serious of all are the concussions, the spinal cord and head injuries.
Benjamin Robinson, 14, from Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, died in 2011 after he collapsed on the pitch
Then there are the fatalities: children like Benjamin Robinson, 14, from Co Antrim, Northern Ireland, who died in 2011 after he collapsed on the pitch. Even though he had suffered a concussion following a collision, he played on for 25 minutes. A second blow to the head killed him.
During my research, I found that there is a culture of letting boys play on with a concussion, despite the fact that it can leave them brain damaged, and can prove lethal. Earlier this year a court heard how Lucas Neville from Dublin, became disabled after playing a school match despite having concussion.
But even though such serious injuries do occur on school rugby pitches, I learned that nobody in the UK is collecting data about them. Rugby injuries are under-reported and badly-reported, usually not reported at all.
A&E departments no longer collect data on the cause of injuries — the Government stopped funding it. How can we prevent injuries if we don’t know what they are or how often they occur? Schools and all the Rugby Unions should be collating this data.
So, as part of my research, I undertook a pilot study of six schools in Edinburgh in 2009. I found that over the course of a season, the average risk of injury to a player is 17 per cent, or one in six, and in other studies, in some schools it is as high as one in three. In our small study, in just 193 matches there were 37 injuries. Of these, 20 required A&E attendance, and 65 per cent prevented further participation in the sport for three weeks or more. If you knew your child was taking this big a risk, would you still want them to play rugby?
My son Hamish stopped playing rugby for ever after his third injury. I made it clear that I didn’t want him to play again and he agreed.
Although he had successful surgery, he had to have time off school, and it was months before he could get back to playing the trombone or taking part in sport.
The accident shook him up, knocking his confidence. He knew that next time, he might not be so lucky. When I told my younger son, then 11, that he couldn’t play rugby either, he was furious.
Over the course of her research and campaigning, Allyson has had a lot of support from doctors and from parents, but also faced a hostility
Eventually, he accepted it, but it was hard for him. Even though he’d seen his brother’s injuries, he didn’t understand the risks; children think they’re invincible. I had to take on the full force of the school’s disapproval, too.
Over the course of my research and campaigning, I’ve had a lot of support from doctors and from parents, but I’ve also faced a hostility.
This is a hugely emotive subject. People are passionate about rugby. Some people say I am advocating a nanny state, but it’s the State that picks up the pieces when children are injured, in terms of NHS care, special education support and social services.
To my horror, I’ve also faced personal abuse for my views, much of it from anonymous men who pepper their emails with swear-words. They say I have no right to comment on rugby, because I’m a woman who has never played the game. That’s ridiculous: I research and write about cancer, but I’ve never had cancer either.
Many parents write to Professor Pollock asking how they can stop their rugby-loving sons playing, following nasty injuries
Many parents write to me asking how they can stop their rugby-loving sons playing, following nasty injuries. Only yesterday, at 3.30am a father emailed me, saying: ‘My son is concussed in hospital, how do I stop him from playing rugby again?’
I’m not calling for a ban on rugby at school. I’m calling for parents to be given information so they know the risks, and I want to see rugby made safer for children, with an end to scrums and tackles — where nearly all the injuries occur.
I’d like school rugby to become touch rugby, instead of contact rugby. All injuries should be recorded, and none should be acceptable or seen as ‘an act of God’.
Most of all, children should be safe at school.
Tackling Rugby, What Every Parent Should Know About Injuries by Allyson Pollock (Verso Books) is published September 29, priced £9.99.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2768758/Why-NO-mother-let-son-play-rugby-By-Professor-ALLYSON-POLLOCK-s-spent-decade-studying-sport-s-devastating-injuries.html#ixzz3EL27ytGn
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