An Athlete's Perspective

This week I have been fortunate enough to interview one of Britain’s most successful female athletes and in the interview below she shares her views on being injured and her experiences of working with different physiotherapists.

Donna Fraser is a former European Junior Champion and has won medals at the World Championships, Commonwealth Games, European Championships, European Indoor Championships, World Junior Championships and the European Junior Championships. Donna was an unlucky fourth at the Sydney Olympics in what is hailed as one of best 400m finals in Olympic history - she missed out on a medal by 0.07 of second.

Donna is currently 5th on the all time list for British female 400m runners and despite numerous injuries she has been at the forefront of British 400m running for 20 years. As a testament to her great ability at the age of 37 Donna was this year ranked as the top European indoor 200m sprinter and 5th for the 400m. Just prior to her recent retirement she won a silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in Torino. 

FFS  As one of Britain’s most successful female athletes how did you react to being injured during your career?

DF   I don’t think any professional athlete wakes up without some kind of niggle, however my serious injuries initially never shocked me, but I had to undertake rehab, this was when it all hit home and sometimes I was very low and others quite upbeat.

FFS Did you have you own dedicated physiotherapist and how closely did you work with them during your career?

DF   I’ve worked with several physios, however one in particular has worked with me for many years.  He has bought me back time after time from injury and I trust him, which does help!

FFS  What do you consider to be the worst injury you suffered?

DF   That is a tough question… My worst injury was breaking my ankle, but the most painful and hardest injury to recover from was my Achilles.

FFS Can you explain more about the Achilles problems you had?

DF   I’ve had Achilles problems from 1995 and through Olympic year 2000 but I was able to manage it.  My Achilles finally had enough while training in the US in April 2001. This was when the Achilles Saga started.  I tried all kinds of treatment, from radiotherapy in Germany to a “tapping” treatment in Australia.  All of which temporarily worked, but for the long term I had to have surgery.  In theory my Achilles took up 9 years of my career, although I was completely out of the sport for 2 ½ years because of it.

FFS   How did you get on with the rehabilitation programs that were given to you?

DF   I find rehab really boring and tedious but it has to be done in order to recover. My guru physio knew this and made some things fun for me which helped immensely.

FFS   How important was the contribution of your physiotherapist in you returning to the track after an injury?

DF   The contribution from my physio helped loads… He was an athlete once and knew how much he could push me and on occasions he would run with me and give me grueling tests to see where I was, which no other physio dared to do! In other words he pushed the boundaries with me.

FFS   So a more involved physio is a better physio?

DF   Absolutely! It is important that there is a great athlete/physio relationship…. If the athlete doesn’t believe in the physio then the healing process is not progressive and in turn if the physio doesn’t treat the athlete as an individual case, it can take twice as long to find the route of the problem.  The physio needs to not only understand the physical aspect of the athlete but also his/her mental aspect.

FFS   Do you feel that the injuries you suffered changed your career?

DF   Well who knows?  I do often think that if I didn’t get injured would I have continued in athletics as long as I did, or would I have become World Champ in 2001… I just don’t know!  I do know it made me a better person and mentally stronger.

FFS  Now that you are semi retired do you have any plans for the future? 

DF    Well I now work full time with EDF Energy. I’d like to have a break from athletics, as 20+ years is a long time. However eventually I would like to give something back to the sport and coach young athletes. Generally, I want to be “normal” for a while if that is possible! Eat what I like, train when I like etc!

 

Special thanks to Donna Fraser for consenting to the interview and providing such great answers. This will hopefully be the first of series of posts that will show professional athletes views on injury and how they cope with being injured. 

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What a Difference a Week and 6 Years Makes

With all the talk about player size and potential rule changes to try and stem the tide of injuries amongst elite rugby players it was interesting to compare and contrast my game last weekend with the u12’s and my games this weekend with the first and second xv.

I blogged last week that I had spent an enjoyable day in the sun - this weekend was very different and it wasn’t just the weather. The u12’s are very much still learning to play rugby and as such it is a totally different game, they also lack the size and strength to do themselves any real damage, plus physiologically at this age they are less likely to injure themselves.

Watching the first and second team this weekend the size difference between players is markedly evident and the game more closely follows the professional game with more time spent in contact and bigger, harder hits de rigueur. The injury count from this weekend was quite impressive. At the start of the game there were already limited subs due to injuries and it didn’t help when I had to stop one of them from being involved with a suspected MCL strain. Ten of the thirty players who started were injured during the course of the game plus there were two more serious injuries to opposition players (gleno-humeral subluxation and suspected clavicle fracture) it was the most challenging 80 minutes I’ve had to date.



There are fundamental differences between working in rugby and football and as someone who regularly does both I have to say I much prefer working in amateur rugby as the systems that they have in place ensure that any injured player can receive attention as quickly as possible. To explain: with rugby a sports therapist/physio can come onto the pitch during play, whereas in football you have to wait for the referee to give you permission (unless it is a head injury) to come onto the pitch - which with amateur football can be some time. Not ideal.

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Changes

It looks like the IRB are going to introduce a number of rule changes before the 2011  Rugby World Cup aimed at protecting players, reducing the risk of injury and making the game more entertaining. Lets hope they are more popular than the recent ELV's. Watch this space for more info.


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Round Up

Cambridge had a great result this week taking us back to the top of the table after an injury time winner gave us victory over derby rivals Dulwich Hamlet. We lost two them twice last season so revenge is sweet!  

We still have several players with long term injuries though and this week in the clinic this week I had the opportunity to watch an assessment of one player who is awaiting surgery on a medial meniscus tear and another who has has just finished his rehabilitation for a dislocated patella and now has a prepatellar bursitis. The bursitis has responded well to treatment and the player should be back in training next week looking for his first start of the season.

Prepatellar Bursitis

Two more rugby matches today but both of them were very quiet so basically I just got paid to watch rugby in the sunshine - it doesn't get much better than that! Only downside was the south London traffic - absolute nightmare today. League Cup quarter final tomorrow with Glebe - a win there would round of a good week. 

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One Eye on the Prize

Your last year at university is always difficult but when most of the people you start with graduate a year before you and are out there living the dream  it can be hard work. Being part time isn’t all it’s cracked up to be - believe me. The motivation to drag yourself out of bed so that you can spend an unhealthy amount of time acquainting yourself with a strangers armpit on the Northern Line is often lacking. But. And there is a big but.  If I want to do the things that my former classmates are doing then I need to get the motivation back and make sure I finish what I’ve started. I need to beat my inner chimp. 

Victoria Pendleton working on her inner chimp.

Working alongside experienced Sports Therapists/Physiotherapists makes me want to fast forward this next year so that I can be out there already. A bit like my nephew Ben I want to run before I can walk. But I think that this is a good thing as it shows how hungry I am for my new career – I just need to redirect this enthusiasm into my studies for a little while longer and graduation will be here before I know it. Let’s face it the last 4 years have flown by.

Here are some of the great things that my former colleagues are getting up to:

Jo Denby - Sports Therapist to Eddie Izzard for his Sports Relief Challenge

Samia Gomez - Official Sports Therapist for the 50 in 50 challenge

Great stuff well done guys.

Oh and if you want to learn more about your inner chimp you should read this or this I can highly recommend them both.

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Best of British

Congratulations to Phillips Idowu and Jessica Ennis who were this week voted Male and Female Athlete of the Year at the British Athletics’ Writers Association annual awards dinner. Ennis has also been named as Sportsperson of the year by the Observer and should if the judges have any sense be in contention for the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.

Ennis was unable to compete at the Beijing Olympics after an MRI scan revealed a metatarsal stress fracture and a stress fracture to her navicular following the Hypo Meeting in Götzis Austria (June 2008). Ennis’s account of the injury and the subsequent rehabilitation shows how much the injury affected her and the important role that her physio and coach have. Makes interesting reading.  Ennis successfully returned to the heptathlon and won gold at the World Championships in Berlin earlier this year.  

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Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit flying first class

Some interesting stories in the press over recent days none more so than Frank Lampard’s apparent plane injury, but I have to reserve special mention for Rangers striker Kris Boyd who apparently fractured his skull by sneezing. I kid you not. It couldn’t possibly have been the clash of heads in his last game - it was definitely the sneeze! I’m always interested in seeing what injuries players have but it is often difficult to establish what is really going on when you have stories like this printed.

Much quieter week for me this week which is good as I get to catch up on my uni work and relax a little more. Only the one game (Glebe FC vs VCD Athletic) as Cambridge’s game was postponed and I’m not on rugby duty this weekend. Glebe have started the season well and although they are only a small club they have big ambitions and this is shown in the professionalism of the players and coaching staff alike. Gillingham FC midfielder Luke Rooney (no relation to Wayne) is on the coaching staff and it is really positive for the players to have a young professional involved. It is a different challenge for me working with such a young age group (u15) but it is one that I enjoy and have had to adapt to, and as ever having to learn twenty odd new names presents its own challenge! 


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Size Does Matter

James Robson, doctor to the British and Irish Lions has recently voiced his concern that rugby players are too big for their level of skill, and tellingly England International Simon Shaw has labelled some players as gym monkeys in his autobiography - have we reached a breaking point? Are some players too big to play the game? When you compare players from the pre professional era with their counterparts today you can see the size of the issue (contrast Will Carling 90kg with Mike Tindall 105kg and Jeff Probyn 102 kg with Andrew Sheridan 119kg). Given that the average Guinness Premiership player can expect to spend a fifth of the season injured does increased player size lead to more time spent on the treatment table?

Never one to be accused of being a gym monkey myself my question to you is, are some rugby players too big? Please vote in the poll and feel free to add your comments below…

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Jonny Wilkinson – The Bionic Man

Somewhat reminiscent of The Bionic Man, Jonny Wilkinson made a welcome return to Twickenham at the weekend. A confident and assured performance was not enough to insure England’s victory but it was enough for many to believe that he can finally turn the corner and put his injury nightmare behind him. Perhaps more remarkable than his performance is the journey that led to Jonny lining up at Twickenham for the first time since the 2008 Six Nations and his first autumn international since 2002.


Winning the RWC in 2003 should have been the catalyst for a long and illustrious career, instead it was the start of a six-year run of injuries that has threatened to end his career and overshadow his prodigious talent. Jonny’s injuries include:

Dec 2003 Fractured right shoulder (3 weeks)
Feb 2004 C4 and C5 vertebrae compression and nerve damage Shoulder and neck surgery (28 weeks)
Oct 2004 Right bicep haematoma (6 weeks)
Jan 2005 MCL tear left knee (8 weeks)
Mar 2005 MCL tear left knee (4 weeks)
Jul 2005 Stinger right shoulder (8 weeks)
Sep 2005 Inflamed appendix followed by appendectomy (4 weeks)
Nov 2005 Gilmore’s groin followed by surgery (8 weeks)
Jan 2006 Torn adductor (12 weeks)
Sep 2006 MCL tear right knee (4 weeks)
Nov 2006 Lacerated Kidney (6 weeks)
Feb 2007 Hamstring tear (6 weeks)
Sep 2007 Lateral ankle injury (1 week)
May 2008 Shoulder surgery (unspecified)
Oct 2008 Dislocated patella (20 weeks)

What impresses me most about Jonny is his motivation and desire to return to the game he loves time after time. From the interviews I’ve seen he cuts a more relaxed figure these days and seems to be enjoying his rugby, which by his own omission, has often been difficult for him to do.

Welcome back Jonny.

On a personal note it has been a good week, I’ve had 4 matches (2 football and 2 rugby) and I have been relatively unscathed by the advancing winter weather; I’m sure the coming weeks won’t be so kind!

It was good to get out for my first rugby matches of the season and, compared to some of the games that I have worked at, it was a quiet day at the office. I have also started some observation work with one of Arsenal’s physios and am looking to finalise another great opportunity in the coming days. More about this later…

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