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Clare star Conor McGrath was operated on by Patrick Carton, before winning an All-Ireland medal in 2013. Ken Sutton/INPHO

Renowned specialist reveals alarming rate of hip injuries among top GAA players

Patrick Carton, who works at Waterford’s Whitfield Clinic, has also revealed that the average age for surgery dropped from 31 to 25 in 2015.

RENOWNED SPECIALIST PATRICK Carton has spoken openly about the hip injury epidemic sweeping through the GAA – revealing that 75 per cent of patients he works with are involved in Gaelic Games.

Carton, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Waterford’s Whitfield Clinic, specialises in hip and groin surgery, and has operated on a host of top inter-county stars in recent years.

Speaking to Tipperary Mid-West Radio’s Stevie O’Donnell, Carton said that the average age for surgery has dropped from 31 to 26 years of age in recent times, and he’s putting that down to the intensity of training that causes progressive damage to the hip joint.

In a wide-ranging interview, Carton explained how it’s not uncommon for players to arrive to his surgery seeking hip repair work, but that the damage is too great and hip replacement is the only option.

In those cases, players are forced to retire from contact sport and Carton says that he’s operating every week “on ex footballers or hurlers in their 30s and 40s.”

Carton said: “Unfortunately, every week we have a number of players who come to the clinic hoping to have sports hip repair surgery.

Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO

“The problems in their hips are there too long, often due to misdiagnosis but sometimes poor treatment and recognition of the problems they’ve had for years.

“The damage is too far gone and the advice for these players generally is to give up their sports and they’re looking forward, unfortunately, to hip replacement in the not too distant future.

“It’s a very sad thing – many players will leave the clinic very upset by this.

“It comes back to picking up this diagnosis at an early stage. Sometimes players don’t know they have a problem.

The symptoms are often very mild to begin with – you have to look out for stiffness after activity, after training that night, the next morning getting up and finding it difficult to put your shoes and socks on, intimate pain in the groin, tight hamstrings and a feeling you have a general inflexibility around your hips.

“A lot of athletes put this down to a good training session, and down to normal getting stiff as you get older. You should never be stiff in your hips after a training session, other than general muscle tightness. If you have stiffness, you need to get it checked out.”

However, Carton explained that early diagnosis is key and that keyhole surgery can lead to players resuming their careers without any great difficulty.

They are then monitored every one, two and five years going forward, and Carton has stressed the importance of screening players for potential problems on an annual basis.

Carton also revealed “a good bit of luck in the last five or so years” when treating a number of All-Ireland winning players.

He worked with Clare trio Cian Dillon, Conor McGrath and Darach Honan before they won All-Ireland senior hurling medals in 2013, and he added: “Plenty of players have come through from Kilkenny and this year we had four or five from Tipperary (including All-Star James Barry and Michael Cahill).

James Barry celebrates at the final whistle Tipperary's James Barry underwent hip surgery before the 2015 campaign. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

“It’s fantastic to watch matches and see players I’ve been personally involved with doing so well afterwards.”

But he warned: “Hip injuries are becoming increasingly more common.

“We’re treating people from 16-36 years of age in sports, mainly GAA hurling and football, soccer and rugby to a lesser degree.

“75 per cent are involved in GAA sports, 10 per cent in soccer and six per cent in rugby.

“The average age of a player who we operate on is 31 – surgery at that age group is designed to repair damage rather than replacing in older age groups.

“The average age is decreasing – 2015 figures show that the average age for surgery was 26 years old.”

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14 Comments
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    Mute Decl@n Hanley
    Favourite Decl@n Hanley
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    Nov 8th 2016, 8:12 AM

    Some frightening stats there. Maybe inter-county & club managers will stop flogging their players like horses now. – Two chances of that happening I’d say.

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    Mute Ado Smith
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    Nov 8th 2016, 8:36 AM

    Apart from excessive training has it anything to with the actual mechanics of playing Gaa compared to rugby and soccer? Or is it just poor training methods? Not having a pop at anyone but suffered/suffering similiar complaints for along time as are alot of my mates after decades of training and playing. 75% Gaa players can’t be just coincidence. Great memories with no regrets but feeling it now. Hopefully further immediate investigation can reveal what’s the cause and cure to stop the rot.

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    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
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    Nov 8th 2016, 9:46 AM

    Good point. You’d imagine swinging the hurley only adds to the strain

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    Mute B Collins
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    Nov 8th 2016, 12:42 PM

    This is a good point also. Mechanics or play and mechanics of player. I didn’t play that much growing up or anything so obviously wouldn’t be putting myself in the same bracket as the players in the article who are playing way more intensely for a lot longer, but mechanics has to be an issue. I remember intense training worsened hip pain I’d started feeling at the age of 19 (at a time when I wasn’t really involved). It got worse and worse and eventually had arthroscopy (2009). This more or less fixed the problem, but surgeon told me part of the problem was the impingement of the bone on the cartilage. Just the way I’m built. For me, I felt it was a mechanical weakness and training sessions aggravated it. I just go to the gym now and don’t really have any issues.

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    Mute William Cuddihy
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    Nov 8th 2016, 10:48 AM

    This type of surgery has lost all funding in Australia as there is no evidence of beneficial short- or long-term effects. This type of article (the third of which I have seen in the last 2 months about the same surgeon) is spreading mistruths to a vulnerable population – young athletes who aren’t being provided with the facts.

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    Mute Raymond Healy
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    Nov 8th 2016, 11:49 AM

    I believe Eanna Falvey came out urging caution about this practice. No mention of research to back up practice or how results compare with more conservative treatment options.

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    Mute Rory O' Connor
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    Nov 8th 2016, 9:48 AM

    Had the above operation on both hips to treat groin pain(had no hip symptoms but surgeon sold it to me as a probable fix)..have to say my symptoms were the exact same after, if not worse. I have heard success stories for hip and hamstrings but would not rush into it, which I did!i haven’t played in 3years since. I’m sure there is plenty of success stories though

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    Mute funkytown
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    Nov 8th 2016, 9:33 AM

    I can’t say for football, but hurling most definitely, could be the mechanics of the game, my hips are fecked and that’s playing at a low level.

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    Mute Cormac Ginty
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    Nov 8th 2016, 10:54 AM

    Soccer 340,070 players.
    The GAA 334,339 players.
    Rugby 158,685 players. (2014 FIGURES Irish sports Council and GAA annual report.)
    75% of hip injuries from GAA and 10% from Soccer. Why? Contact sport v non contact. Shoulder charge?
    GAA is played on hard ground in summer. Soccer and Rugby are mainly winter sports on soft ground? Or is there a difference in training methods?

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    Mute kieranodea
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    Nov 8th 2016, 8:34 PM

    As a practicing Physio I am not convinced at all of the benefits of so called ‘key hole’ surgery for young adult hip pain.
    Seen lots of patients who have struggled after this operation. Other patients have of course done well – but I wonder if they would have got better anyway if their injury in the first place had been properly managed non surgically (i.e. look at their exercise load/intensity/technique).
    Pain after exercise is normal (for the last 30 years science has been telling pain does not mean damage) – and mostly likely means you just need to tweak what you are doing.

    Unfortunate of The 42 to put up an article which is not supported by the research evidence base and has the potential to cause harm to young athletes.

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    Mute conex
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    Nov 8th 2016, 10:25 AM

    Hurlers gone to soft , can’t remember the last time I saw a hurl get broke watching a championship match on tv

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    Mute Mark Cronin
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    Nov 8th 2016, 12:41 PM

    https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=218868248525846&id=138876779858327 you obviously weren’t watching TG4 last Sunday!

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    Mute conex
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    Nov 8th 2016, 3:51 PM

    Nah , to soft .

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    Mute AJB123
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    Nov 8th 2016, 10:14 AM

    A correlation between numbers participating and the injuries would help shed a bit more light on this as well as lend a bit more credence to the data presented.

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