As rugby moves into its 25th year as a professional sport, the first comprehensive survey investigating the positive and negative side of the sport has just been published — and the findings are revealing.
MyPlayers, the professional players’ union in South Africa, interviewed 20 senior players and anonymously surveyed 105 of the 600 professional players in the country in a wide-ranging investigation. If, for example, two responses under different topics appeared to be related – such as financial security and signing an overseas deal, or concussion and mental health – responses were amalgamated under a single heading or related headings.
Players were almost unanimously positive about existing competition structures and travelling schedules. Where there is room for improvement or caution, they made recommendations.According to the report, all players admitted to suffering from anxiety – some more so than others, and for different reasons: injuries, poor performances, relationship breakups, divorce, being dropped from a side, death of a friend or family member, and having only months left on a contract.
Within 60 minutes of the call going into the helpline, the relevant player is contacted by the IPW to start the process of setting up the appointment with a designated psychologist in their area. Former Stormers lock Gerbrandt Grobler earned a two-year doping ban in 2014 after testing positive for anabolic steroids in a Currie Cup game and later admitted to pain killer addiction and depression.Daily Mail“I’d had really bad ankle and shoulder surgery. I was in a moonboot and wearing two slings. My life was in and out of theatre,” Grobler said. “Nine surgeries in a year. I was taken by pain pills completely. Painkillers, OxyContin, those kind of things.
Grobler’s painful experience might be on the extreme end of the spectrum, but the MyPlayers report clearly reveals that it is not unique. Unfortunately, more than two years on, the mental health helpline is under-used. Only six MyPlayers members used it in 2019.Another, less startling but no less worrying finding, was that 90% of players have either signed a contract with an overseas club or intend to sign one.
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