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News tracker Fremantle has placed Ryan crowley on the long-term injury list and upgraded clancee pearce from the rookie list.

it didn’t feel like a strain or a ‘corky’, but the pain was there all the time like an ache, even when just lying in bed AdRiAn HicKMott

END OF THE ROAD: Adrian Hickmott was forced to

retire from AFL football due to osteitis pubis.

Treatment for osteitis pubis is mainly load modification to reduce the stresses on the damaged tendons and bone, says Dr Orchard.

He explains that the tendon and bone can’t take more than a certain load so, where possible, that load has to be reduced.

He says that it is much easier to modify training loads by decreasing the amount of running and kicking required of the injured player, as match modification, aside from reducing game-time, is much harder to achieve.

Former Geelong and Carlton player and now-Essendon assistant coach Adrian Hickmott was forced to retire from the Blues in 2003 (at 31 after 182 matches) because of the injury, just nine weeks after noticing the first symptom.

Hickmott – who also missed all of 1998 with a knee injury – says he endured weeks of pain with osteitis pubis, but did not rest.

An extremely hard trainer, he kept running but started experiencing groin tightness the day after any running. It was his first indication of a problem.

Hickmott then started feeling tightness in his lower back, but kept pushing through. After this came a small adductor muscle strain.

“I didn’t take much notice. I told the physio, missed one week but then came back and it got much worse, but I thought it was just tightness,” Hickmott says.

“I felt really good when I had warmed up and stretched, and running felt great. Over time, the pain gradually came up to the top of the pubic bone, but I just kept pushing through.”

Hickmott said when he would first lift his leg to run, he would feel a jolt of pain through the pubic bone and the condition reduced his speed and kicking power.

“It didn’t feel like a strain or a ‘corky’, but the pain was there all the time like an ache, even when just lying in bed.”

On reflection, he realises he should have rested but points out awareness of the injury back then was relatively low.

He suggests players with soreness or tightness around the groin should speak out immediately, and fitness staff and coaches ought to hold them out of normal training. Swimming, cycling or boxing should be done instead to maintain fitness levels.

Dr Orchard recommends players avoid overtraining, optimise core stability and report symptoms early.

Not surprisingly, the AFL Research Board has made the issue of osteitis pubis a priority.

A study funded by the board found that the key to the prevention and management of osteitis pubis is the management of exercise load, pelvic integrity and the early identification of warning signs.

Other AFL-funded research concluded that an elite junior footballer who sustains a hip or groin injury is almost twice as likely to sustain a similar injury when playing at AFL level.

Therefore, one of the keys to reducing these injuries in the AFL is prevention at the elite junior level.

To help with this, other researchers are developing a screening protocol that can be used to identify elite juniors at risk of hip or groin injuries.

In addition, the AFL Sports Science Advisory Board is running a study across all AFL clubs investigating the training and playing loads for first-year AFL players.

The study is being conducted in an effort to increase player longevity at AFL level by improving the developmental transition from elite junior to elite senior competition.

dr Jodi Richardson completed her phd at Monash university, investigatinghamstring muscle training and itsapplication to hamstring injury preventionin Australian Football. she specialises incommunicating the science of sport.

match play – incorporating high running loads, rapid changes of direction and kicking – means that high forces are transmitted through these muscles to the bone.

Over time, this can result in overload of the pelvic region, leading to tendon and bone damage.

Dr Orchard says the main symptom of osteitis pubis is pain, but in the early stages, pain may not be felt all the time.

“Initially, a player may feel fine in a game but will be sore the next day. Early pain is often felt lifting a leg as the player gets out of bed or out of their car,” he says.

“As the condition progresses, pain is felt at all times and eventually the player will begin to lose speed, kicking power and the ability to change direction quickly.”

Quite often, he says, players are more than willing to continue playing in pain, but are rested more when their condition begins to impact their performance.

M E D I C A L R O O M

Smarter training a key to limiting OP injurydr jodi richardson

Osteitis pubis, or ‘OP’ as it is often referred to, can be a terrible diagnosis for an AFL

player. At best, it can mean weeks of recovery; at worst it can spell the end of a career.

What exactly is it? Why can it keep a player off the field for so long? And how can it be prevented?

Osteitis pubis is a painful condition that results in inflammation of the pubic bones and surrounding areas. In biology, ‘oste’ means bone, and ‘itis’ means inflammation.

Dr John Orchard, a sports physician and co-author of the annual AFL Injury Report, says osteitis pubis is an overuse chronic groin injury.

He describes it as a condition similar to tendinitis where typically, one or more of the tendons attaching the muscles of the inner thigh to the pubic bone become inflamed.

However, unlike ordinary tendinitis, Dr Orchard says osteitis pubis affects the bone as well and can cause extra fluid to accumulate around the pubic bones and the joint between them.

It can also lead to degeneration of the bone and the formation of bone cysts.

Muscles attach to bones via tendons and it’s the pulling of muscles on bones that causes movement.

A number of muscles including those of the inner thigh (adductors), front of the hip and abdomen, attach to the pelvis on and around the pubic bones.

For AFL players, the volume of training and