An embodied analysis of male rugby players’ lived experiences of concussion

Abstract

Sport-related concussion (SRC) can be defined as “…a traumatic brain injury induced by biomechanical forces through sport related activities” (McCrory et al. 2017, p.12). There has been increased popular interest in athlete welfare issues surrounding concussion, particularly following high-profile cases such as Ben Robinson and George North (BBC, 2012) To date much of the literature on concussion has offered biomechanical and physiological analyses of concussion, equipment to safeguard against concussion and the implications of playing position on concussion (e.g., Patton and & McIntosh 2016; Symons et al., 2020; Edwards et al., 2021). Recently, there has been much debate that the rules, regulations and policies put in place to prevent and manage concussion are ineffective in contact sports, such as rugby union (hereafter referred to as ‘rugby’). However, there has been limited socio-cultural analyses of this which would allow further understanding as to why individuals find the current policies ineffective. The aim of this research project was to examine male rugby players’ experiences of concussion. To achieve this semi-structured interviews were used to gather rich detail on players’ experiences which then underwent a thematic analysis using Arthur Frank’s (1995) typology of body usage as a theoretical framework to enable the identification of three key themes: 1) Rugby Discourses, 2) Broken bodies and 3) Broken Systems. Collectively, the findings indicate that policies have changed within the last decade, but the rugby culture surrounding concussion remains the same for the last two decades. The expectation to be tough and aggressive to fulfil a rugby ideal continues to encourage players to play through concussion. Players use their corporeal body to perform specific body usages (e.g., disciplined, mirroring, dominating and communicative) (Frank 1995). Although in previous studies (e.g., González-Calvo and Varea 2019) communicative bodies have been seen as an unachievable ideal (Frank 1995), elite players often exhibit these bodies by sharing their concussive experiences through similar opportunities provided in this study.

Date of Award	2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Abertay University
Supervisor	Rhiannon Lord (Supervisor) & Ross Lorimer (Supervisor)