Wellbeing Wednesday: Mackay club take action on lower leg injuries

It was an episode of SBS’ Insight that made Taryn Shears spring into action.

She was watching television one night in March, 2019, when an episode of the show titled “Kids Sports Injuries” caught her attention.

With children of her own, Shears was taken aback by some of the information shared, particularly that of there being a 74 per cent increase in those under the age of 25 who required an ACL reconstruction.

There was speculation as to why this was – kids being bigger and taller, overtraining and putting more load on their bodies, engaging in less free play and therefore having less agility, and more.

But what stuck with her was the line from Gold Coast doctor, Chris Vertullo, who said 50 to 80 per cent of ACL ruptures were preventable by doing a certain set of exercises and targeted training on a regular basis.

With her sons playing at the Wanderers Junior Rugby League club in Mackay, Shears decided to email the club the information.

But it wasn’t until she became the club’s secretary in 2020 that she fully realised how often children were suffering from lower leg injuries.

“When I first started (as secretary), I didn’t have the confidence yet to push something like this,” Shears said.

“But being the secretary, I was signing the paperwork for the ACL injuries and getting upset.

“With these types of injuries, the children have to go away and travel to Brisbane for these surgeries. They miss school, they can be on crutches, they have to pay a lot of money, they miss out on all this time with sport and then they can feel that isolation and there’s their mental health as well.

“My son did an ankle – nothing major – but he was on crutches for a while and he had to go to school and was struggling with his backpack and trying to get around. It was such a long day for him.

“My friend’s son did his ACL and they had to get on a plane to Brisbane and they told us how painful it was getting back.

“I just thought if we knew that such a large percentage was preventable, we should do something about it. As a parent, I’d want everything possible done for these kids.”

The more that reports of lower leg injuries came across her desk, the more Shears wanted to do something about it.

She had to bide her time, first with being new to the role and then with COVID disrupting the seasons.

But as she started to collate information, she found the Wanderers alone had seen 12 ACL injuries across four age groups in the space of three years.

And that wasn’t even taking into account other knee, ankle and lower leg injuries.

Shears raised the issue and her proposed solution last year, and the immediate response was music to her ears: “yep, let’s do it”.

“We started talking about this in October,” Shears said.

“I had to find someone to actually implement a program and these exercises that could help reduce lower leg injury rates.

“I actually rang Dr Chris Vertullo’s office, the Gold Coast doctor who spoke on Insight. I spoke to his clinic manager and she recommended some physios to talk to.

“I started ringing around to physios and some others, and the same name kept coming up – Brayden Smith.”

Smith was the co-founder of an athlete development centre, Integrated Bodies, in Mackay. As soon as Shears rang him, he was on board.

He asked for time to develop a program specifically for the club on preventing lower leg injuries and even created a portal on his website for Wanderers coaches to access for information.

Once he created the program, he went to the club and presented to them on March 1, walking the coaches and some trainers through the exercises they should implement.

And so far Shears said the reception was extremely positive.

“They seemed to love it,” she said of her club’s coaches.

“Engagement is the biggest thing when it comes to something like this and the coaches really enjoyed it.

“Brayden is so passionate and he is very good.

“I’ve already had feedback that the coaches want to bring Brayden to the players now, particularly the older age groups.

“Hopefully it can continue to go well.”

The QRL North wellbeing operations manager David Sheridan said it was inspiring to hear of the Wanderers taking their own initiative, not just for the short-term, but also the long-term wellbeing of their children.

“Of course it’s their duty of care to look after their players, but to also look after their future like that, it’s huge,” Sheridan said.

“It’s going beyond just doing what they can to be winning.

“Lower leg injuries are the biggest we see in the game and knee injuries are the longest ones to recover from. They leave kids on the bench for a lot longer.

“When a young person sustains these injuries, people can overlook how it affects them – how they might overcompensate in other ways, leading to more injuries or how it affects their school and what they do with their friends on the weekend.

“If it’s not looked after or healed properly, it can affect them in the long-term.

“The positive here is that the Wanderers went out of their way to investigate reoccurring injuries at the club.

“To simply acknowledge that is a huge step and then to take that next step to do something about it is even better.”