Case Study Rugby Injury

Maria is a lady who loves Rugby, played at international level and became one of the first full-time professional women’s’ rugby players in England. During one of her training sessions, Maria felt stiff before warm-up and did not see the tackle coming which led to injury; she raptured her anterior cruciate ligament and tore the cartilage in her left knee during a training match. This happened when she was in the process of buying a house with her boyfriend Michael which eventually led to Maria getting stressed. As the injury progressed, Maria experienced negative emotions and could not associate with team mates. To treat the injury, Maria had to undergo through surgery to try and fix the problem. After the surgery, she had to visit a physiotherapy once a week and found the …show more content…
Maria experienced injury and career termination. Physical injury can be “the breakdown in structure of the body leading to dysfunction” (Howe 2004). In modern sports, athletes are forced to train earlier, harder and longer, being rewarded by better performance but there is consequences for high intensity workout, in this case Maria gave all her life to Rugby not knowing she had a price to pay for over using her body (Murphy, 2004). Career termination can be “an event leading in the change of assumptions about oneself and requires a corresponding change in behaviour or relationship” (Schlossberg, 1981). Relating this to the Maria, her career had to end as a result of her injury and she had not assumed that this would happen to her. This type of career termination is common in the sports industry for instance Michael Owen had to terminate his career after being prone to injuries and having a dreadful rehabilitation at critical time (Williams & Andersen,