Hull KR have brought a PhD researcher to the club to undertake groundbreaking research on concussions in Rugby League.
Brianna Mulhern has joined Rovers from Ulster University’s School of Sport for research aimed at improving future prevention and intervention of concussions in the sport.
Her research will use the new mouthguards that have been approved across the game for next season, developed by Leeds Beckett University as part of the RFL TaCKLE project.
These state-of-the-art mouthguards can monitor the affects of impacts on players during matches and training, potentially allowing clubs to identify when a player is at risk of concussion.
“I’ll be doing a lot of GPS data and monitoring mouthguards on concussions,” she said. “My PhD is on concussion biomechanics – I want to be able to get to the point where I can see in real-time when a concussion has occurred and the magnitude of that concussion.
“There’s a lot of groundwork to do but in the future I’d like to be standing next to the pitch during a game and if there is an impact I’m able to in real-time see how has this impact occurred, where it has occurred and its magnitude.
“We’d have the data coming in live and know when a player needs to come off. Being able to have that opportunity to take care of the player when they don’t know the magnitude of what their injury might be, that’s the point I want us to get to.”
