Why are hamstring injuries on the rise in the NRL this season?

The rate of hamstring injuries in the NRL has skyrocketed with the average yearly number of hamstring injuries set to be dwarfed by the 2024 figure.

A number of star players have been hindered by long-term hamstring injures so far this season, including Tom Trbojevic, Nathan Cleary, and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck all in the last week.

Brian Seeney, who runs the NRL Physio social media pages, revealed the NRL is going to leave the average number of hamstring injuries in the dust for 2024.

“Hamstring injuries are going bonkers… year on year from 2019 the average per season is 24 hamstrings over the entirety of the season. Now, we’re at the end of round 10, just over a third of the season, and we’re at 20 so only four off the average with 17 regular season rounds to go,” Seeney told Breakfast with Vossy and Brandy.

“The reinjury rate (in the NRL) is up to 30% in some professional sporting leagues. Even soccer, it can be up to 60% and these are professional leagues with the best medical staff, the best treatment… and you’re talking reinjury rates of 30-60 percent.

“The forces these guys put through their hamstrings is significant and I think sometimes it’s just the straw that broke the camel back.”

As to why hamstring injuries were happening so commonly this season compared to others, Seeney believes one specific factor can’t be pointed to and it’s likely an outlier.

“When you look at the game, between 2023 and 2024, there hasn’t been that many changes,” Seeney said.

“The only things I can point to is, number 1, the wet field… but wet grounds that break up and are soft actually increase muscle strain risks.

“The other thing the NRL has come out with… there has been an increase in ball-in-play time during the start of the season and the game’s been a bit quicker… it’s probably more than likely an outlier at this point.

“Every year, apart from 2020 and 2021, the injury rate ranged between 12 to 13 injuries a week. This year, it’s 13.3 per week so there hasn’t been an increase in injuries, it’s just been star names.”

With Magic Round this week, Seeney has no reason to be concerned about the Suncorp Stadium field being torn up and responsible for an increase in hamstring injuries.

Listen to the full analysis with the NRL Physio below: