Question: In a Rugby Scrum, what is the worst spinal/brain injury?

Amy Reeve answered on 17 Jun 2011:

Hi Samuel,

I love rugby! (watcing..not playin!!) i am so looking forward to the world cup!

Anyway…since the scrum laws changed and with the introduction of scrum caps, playing in the scrum has become much safer. The worst scrum injury is a broken neck which can lead to death, especially if it moves and cuts the spinal cord.

But spinal cord injuries from the neck down which are usually damage to the spine rather than severing it cause paralysis. Your spinal cord is well organised so that the top of the cord helps control the top of your body and the bottom part your legs, depending on where the injury occurs depends on where the paralysis is. For example if it is low down it might be the players legs, or their bowel which is paralysed. Depending on the injury and its location though paralysis can sometimes only be temporary. The most important thing is getting treated quickly.

For brain injuries the most serious in a modern game is likely to be a concussion, this is only temporary and is not likely to lead to permanent damage. To really seriously damage your brain you would need to do some damage to your skull. Skull fractures also used to be quite common these generally don’t cause brain injury unless they cause a bleed in the brain which can also be life threatening.

Rugby is a very safe game though and as long as you protect your head and don’t do anything crazy it is very unlikely that you will every suffer any serious injuries. The most common injuries nowadays are broken fingers i would imagine 🙂

Hope this helps, thanks for your question 😀