All Blacks: ABs face up to pain, for life

All Blacks accept pain is part of their job. Photo / Getty Images

As a medical professional, Deb Robinson is amazed she doesn't see more physical carnage in the All Black dressing room.

The rugby calendar and pressure on players are at a point few thought they would ever reach and at a point many doctors believe the human body was absolutely not designed for.

Rugby in the UK has been gripped by the most worrying injury epidemic. Clubs across the four Home Unions, particularly so in England, have been clawing together match-day 22s for the past few months now. Academy players and age-grade stars have been drafted just to have enough bodies on the field.

Rugby's obsession with bigger, faster, stronger is now inflicting real damage. The injury toll is alarmingly high as a result of bigger athletes hitting each other harder with their better conditioned, scientifically designed bodies.

The modern game has allowed other dangers to infiltrate - the cleanout at the collision being one and the propensity for double tackles, where the initial contact point is around the chest.

Its little wonder that the attrition rate is so high; that almost every game these days delivers yet more to the already bulging casualty wards. That was the inevitable consequence of professionalism.

But the present is only half the story. It's the future that worries the medical fraternity more. All these collisions; all this impact; all this trauma on the body - what toll will it take further down the track? The human body wasn't designed for the sort of work someone like Richie McCaw specialises in.

"There is no doubt the game is a game of collisions and that is making the shoulder very vulnerable," says Dr Robinson, who has been the lead medic with the All Blacks since 2005.

"No matter how much conditioning you do, we are struggling to control shoulder pathology. The shoulder is inherently a mobile joint and therefore we are seeing people wearing out their shoulders.

"We are also seeing people getting nasty injuries to their ankles and knee through contact trauma. They are the ones we worry about, because often guys can make their living further down the track without their shoulders too much. But you would struggle to do too much without your knees and your ankles."

The thought of the stars of today hobbling around tomorrow half-crippled is difficult to conjure. But it is something that will happen.

There are some men you can't but help fear for. McCaw is one. Rodney So'oialo and Jerry Collins - two warriors who have never held back - Brad Thorn and Tony Woodcock. These players have been committed to the cause for a long time.

In time, they will pay for that commitment, yet no one within the All Black camp would be prepared to give up or amend what they have now. The future can wait.

"We don't talk to them in a lot of detail because we can recognise from the research they don't really give a toss," offers Robinson.

"Most of them accept they will have something that just carries on after they stop playing. They are going to be left with joints that are not as good as they should be for their age."

The All Blacks are fortunate compared with many of their peers. Player welfare has been top of the New Zealand agenda for the better part of the last decade.

The season structure has enabled New Zealand to provide its athletes a level of protection not available in the UK, where the club owners and national unions want their pound of flesh.

The All Blacks also benefit from the quality of medical expertise, with the likes of Robinson and her Kiwi peers recognised as being world leaders in managing sports injuries.

Yet even with those relative protections in place, the average All Black is taking an enormous pounding.

"It amazes me they can play the way they do and it amazes they can train on Monday," says Robinson. "It amazes me that we don't see more broken ribs."