England rugby stars could lose THREE stone in muscle during coronavirus lockdown, reveals top physio
ENGLAND stars could lose up to THREE stone in muscle and will take a month before they can play, says a top physio.
Medic Luke Anthony worked at Gloucester and was head of sports science for Brian McDermott’s Reading in the Premier League.
He would spend up to 12 weeks of the off-season at Kingsholm re-building players for the gruelling season.
England’s stars and most of the Premiership are now seven weeks without a game due to Covid-19.
And Anthony warned: “Guys will lose weight.
“Forwards who are between 100 to 120kg will lose between ten to 20kg of muscle mass.
“These guys are freakishly big and it takes a lot of work, from a training and nutritional point of view, to maintain it.
“As soon as you drop off, so does the weight.
They will be de-conditioned, but rugby will probably have to compromise somewhere to get back to a safe level to play.
Luke Anthony
“Some will be OK weight-wise, others will struggle. Not all of them will still be squatting 180kg, deadlifting, bench-pressing — the basics — so will lose muscle mass.
“They will be de-conditioned, but rugby will probably have to compromise somewhere to get back to a safe level to play.
“Realistically, it’s four weeks bare minimum. If you have a long period out, then ramp it up quickly, your body is more prone to injury. You need to build up tolerance.
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"So the injury risk is much higher with a compressed training period. Football is much quicker, maybe two to three weeks, whereas in rugby - you have pre-seasons of 10 to 12 weeks.
"Some guys will do four to six weeks of strength-based conditioning to harden the body up. Then they start the rugby and do six weeks of that, before one or two pre-season games.
"It takes a long time physically to play a match. So with this amount of time off, with no training at your club gym and relying on what you've got at home or borrowed, it's tough."
As reported by SunSport last week, Premiership stars are preparing to return to training in just two weeks as a best-case scenario.
To start they would work alone and in small groups, with the hope that games could be played behind-closed-doors by the end of June.
Though it would still be likely there would have to be midweek matches to complete the full 12 rounds needed to wrap-up the campaign.
But Anthony, who also worked at Norwich City from 2015 to 2017, warned: "To think about shorter turnarounds on top of that, you really start building up problems.
"If they are not careful there will be huge player welfare issues, a short summer break into the new season - so they have plenty of potential problems to navigate.
"You've got to be careful not to back this season up into the next one to make all the games up. You'll have a really congested 12-month period going into a Lions tour, having already had a World Cup.
"Relegation is sorted, so maybe just look at the top sides and the play-offs - perhaps rugby-league style play-offs.
"You just have to be careful cramming a season in, because player welfare has been an issue for years. Something will have to give, but they do need to take a breath - don't panic and try to shove games in.
"Fans won't want to watch games twice a week with loads of changes either. And it's hard enough peaking once a week in rugby.
"The one upside is that players don't get much time off. If a player gets eight weeks off in the summer, that's just about enough time to get rid of most aches and pains that you carry through a season.
"So for the first time, players' bodies are being rested after being battered around."
Anthony now works with a whole range of athletes from Premier League footballers like Gary Cahill to rugby players at Wasps and London Irish, to triathletes, climbers and MMA stars - all at his .
And, like at all top clubs, Anthony and his team of experts use plenty of testing to shape their plans for athletes to stay in peak condition or get back to full fitness.
He added: "When you're in a club environment you will be weighed and body-fatted regularly, there's hydration/ urine tests all done daily. Plus other well-being tests.
"Most clubs will have an app and you fill in how tired you feel, how stiff your body is, how well you slept, how well you have eaten and you get monitored to make sure everything is okay.
"There will be flexibility tests in the morning to make sure you're not picking up any sort of injuries - so these boys are tested non-stop and you can't do that right now. So the players have to be ultra-disciplined so that standards don't slip.
"If you are stuck at home on your own, it is easy to let bad habits creep in. It's hard to motivate yourself with the uncertainty.
"So these guys have to be so well disciplined to do it week after week during an uncertainty of when you may or may not be back.
"There will be a lot of Zoom meetings, players having a lot of interaction with coaches and medical staff, but it puts a lot of emphasis on the player to be organised and plan - even things like shopping and getting the right foods in."