FOOTBALL AND ACCIDENTS.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 65, 15 September 1908, Page 5

FOOTBALL AND ACCIDENTS.

[PBEBS ASSOCIATION.] . AUCKLAND^-yesterday. Speaking at the football ."social" on Saturday evening, Dr Hardie Neill, medical oificer fore. /the^ Auckland ; Rugby Union, gave "some interesting information as to, the mariner in which the Rugby game is played here. There were, he said; 700 players engaged in the various competitions every Saturday during the season, and of that number only 17 had been placed on the casualty list, and their-, names had not remained 7 "there on an average for more than .' two weeks. i The longest space of time any player I had had to remain in bed was three I days, and there had not been a case ■ reported where the injury, was due to a direct blow, such as a kick. The junior players were usually the ones who got knocked about, and their injuries were either brought about by padlocking the ball under their arms while on the ground or by putting their heads down and trying to burst through an opposing team on their J own. (Laughter.) He had found that the more skilled and trained a | man was the less liable was he to injury.