What Are The Most Common Hurling Injuries?

Hurling is one of the nation’s most popular sports. Though native to Ireland, its international presence in the sporting sphere is ever-expanding. With it’s growing global recognition and acclaim comes increased standard of play and demands on players. A prospective study published by the British Medical Journal followed injury incidence of 900 hurlers over the course of 5 years. Of these players, 70% sustained injuries during the surveillance period.

Most of these injuries are lower limb injuries which account for 68% of sustained injuries, upper limb injuries amount to 18.6%, while trunk/ torso and head/ neck injuries make up 8.5% and 4% of injuries respectively. The most common mechanism of injury in hurling differs from its Gaelic football counterpart in that a high number of 39% of hurling injuries are sustained during player to player contact. Sprinting results in 24.5% of injuries whereas landing results in 14% of injuries.

57% of hurling injuries are incurred during match play. A further 35% of injuries in hurling happen during training and the remaining 8% of reported injuries are described as insidious in their onset. This means that the injury isn’t attributed to one specific event or clear mechanism of injury.

The most common site of injury in hurling is the thigh, making up 23% of injuries. Knee injuries amount to 12% of injuries. Relatively unique to hurling in the domain of field sport, wrist/ hand/ finger injuries make up over 10% of overall injuries.

In this blog series, we will delve the research surrounding upper limb, lower limb and torso injuries sustained in the game of hurling.

‍