It must be tough Gotcha, operating on a completely different plane of thought to us mere mortals.

One where your bones get so tired that they break

=#FF0000** Stretcher Boy ALERT!!! **

Much as its funny to laugh at Gotcha, and I think he is being a bit tenuous but I think the point he is trying to make is that when you are under fatigue your body takes shortcuts, and you're not able to execute each play they way you would do when fully fresh. I don't know how Sinny bust his thumb, but I've done it a few times and most often on other people's elbows when I've tackled them. Now when fresh I may have made a better contact, or at least got my arms around their back, but under fatigue you could see that I may only get them around the side and an elbow slams into them.

The fatigue doesn't make bone injuries happen, but it presents more opportunities for them to happen. No direct link but I can see that logically at least there is one

I can understand Gotcha's point in general, but Sinfield is playing a backs role. Backs don't tend to get rest unless they're injured.

Hall has currently paid 70 odd consecutive matches, I don't hear any calls for him to have a rest.

Hall gets enough rest down at the Bleached Hair Perfections & Fake Tan Salon.

McDermott used the squad in pretty much the same way last year and people were saying players looked fatigued yet we didn't ever pick up several injuries at once like we have now.....so how does this fatigue = injuries theory stick?

You won't be saying that when his left index finger spontaneously snaps on his way home from training tomorrow.

I know it might be hard for you to fathom, what with your head been so far up McDermotts arris Printer. But two years is longer than one year, and right at the start of this thread I made the clear point of two years continuous.

It would appear that you are becoming a bit more in the minority, now that people are actually using their ability to think, and cottoned on to what is said.

You are dealing with players who are year older so game recovery time will be slowed plus they will be playing against some younger faster players who are not is such a state of decline so their tackling effectiveness will be compromisied.

Although not in Sinfield's case as most now just run past him. Although in the exiles a few were even older and slower than him which possibly explains why he got a tackle in something his body was not used to hence the damage

Sorry to bring this back two pages, but since I worked in evidence-based medicine for a long time (I'm more into evidence-base in social policy these days so I'm a bit rusty but the principles are quite similar), including critical appraisal of research evidence and its incorporation into clinical practice, I was wondering whether you could point me towards the research evidence or trial data that leads you to conclude that this is "scientific fact." I've had a little look on PubMed and I can't find anything, although it wasn't the most scientific search.

Could you dig out the papers I'm missing to save me the time? Might be worth forwarding them to the club's medical staff too.

I am in favour of rotation, yes, both through the season and during games for purposes such as freshening-up and introducing youth one-at-a-time without unbalancing the team ... not for avoiding random injuries which occur anytime whether fatigued or fresh.