Background: Illness accounts for a significant proportion of consultations with a team physician travelling with elite athletes VSports手机版. .

Objective: To determine the incidence, type, cause and consequences of illness in Rugby Union players participating in a 16-week tournament. V体育安卓版.

Setting: 8 teams participating in the 2010 Super 14 Rugby tournament Participants A cohort of 259 elite rugby players from eight teams was recruited. V体育ios版.

Assessment: All players were followed daily over the 16-week competition period (22 676 player days). Each day, team physicians completed an illness log with 100% compliance VSports最新版本. Information included the daily squad size and illness details including system affected, final diagnosis, type and onset of symptoms, training/match days lost and suspected cause. .

Main outcome measurement: Incidence of illness (illness per 1000 player days) V体育平台登录. .

Results: The incidence of illness in the cohort was 20. 7/1000 player days (95% CI 18. 5 to 23. 1) with the highest incidence of illness in the respiratory system (6. 4: 95% CI 5. 5 to 7. 3), gastrointestinal system (5. 6: 95% CI 4. 9 to 6. 6) and the skin and subcutaneous tissue (4. 6; 95% CI 4. 0 to 5. 4) VSports注册入口. Infections accounted for 54. 5% of all illness and 26. 1% of illness resulted in time loss of ≥1 day. In over 50% of illnesses, symptoms were present for ≥1 day before being reported to the team physician. .

Conclusion: Infective illness involving the respiratory tract and gastrointestinal tract together with dermatological illness was common in elite rugby players participating in this international tournament V体育官网入口. A delay in reporting of symptoms >24 h could have important clinical implications in player medical care. .