Former Wales captain Sam Warburton has suggested that players play no more than 25 games per season following his retirement from rugby earlier this summer.
Warburton played 74 games over eight years for Wales but called time on his career last month after an accumulation of injuries and ailments.
The longtime Cardiff flanker cited nerve symptoms and joint pains as the primary factors behind his decision and said his body simply could not withstand the workload.
“I remember saying to the physio, ‘I’m fine but when I tackle or run, that’s when I get pain’,” Warburton told the Times. “He was like, ‘That is a bit of a problem doing what you do’.
“When I was doing overhead press in the gym, I was still getting nervy symptoms, pain in my neck, and I hadn’t even done any contact work.
“After a week I was coming home from training and I was having joint pain – you can deal with muscle soreness but this was different.
“I didn’t want to be that player who was just hanging on, holding a pad. If I couldn’t get to the heights I wanted to, I’d rather just call it a day.
“If I couldn’t get to an international standard, I was not going to do it and I could tell I wasn’t going to make that after about a week’s training. My body just couldn’t cope with the volume of running anymore.”
Sam Warburton’s three pieces of player welfare advice to the game’s authorities: 25 game limit per season, less contact training and more protection for the jackaller.
One of the finest players of his generation had to retire at 29. The authorities should listen. https://t.co/sExK6pEOkE— Alex Lowe 📰 (@AlexMLowe) August 25, 2018
Warburton suggested putting a cap on games per season, less contact training and more protection for a player aiming to poach the ball as three changes rugby can make to improve player welfare.
His former British & Irish Lions teammate Anthony Watson also called for the authorities to lower games and suggested that 20 games per season would be enough matches for players.
The 24-year-old, currently ruled out by an Achilles injury, told the Mail on Sunday: “You don’t want to see passive tackles. I don’t think changing the nature of the game is the answer.
“What’s difficult is playing 25 plus games per year and you end up playing at 75 or 80 per cent. These things aren’t decided by the players but I’d have thought 20 games maximum is the right number.”
