Sir, – There is an increased awareness of injury, especially head injury, in sports, which is to be welcomed. However, there is a danger of losing out on the benefits of team sports, and rugby in particular, by withdrawing children from sport at a young age.
We have a rise in obesity among our young people, which is a store of future ill-health for them, and also a rise in our rate of mental health illness in the same cohort.
My concern is that rugby, in particular, caters for those children with body shapes that are less suited for Gaelic football, soccer, hurling, and so on. These boys and girls who are slower but stronger are ideal for certain positions in rugby, but lose out to their lighter, nimbler compatriots when picking backs and strikers. A benefit parents may not see is that a love of sport at a young age, particularly for children who would be left out of other field sports, does often translate into an active middle age and old age, with enormous health benefits.
If children are keen on any team sport, parents should think carefully about the benefits as well as the risks. The pleasure sport offers at a young age will undoubtedly increase lifelong participation in an active lifestyle.
Keeping a young person off the pitch to protect them but keeping them in front of a screen may well increase their lifelong risk of ill-health.
I must declare my interest as a former prop forward now plodding marathons, and the son of a former prop forward recently running marathons, and with two sons and a daughter, who I feel on balance get so much from all their sports that it outweighs the risks. – Yours, etc,
Dr AIDAN MACKEY,
Manorhamilton,
Co Leitrim.