Wales are looking into possible links between a recent spate of serious knee injuries.
Three players have suffered anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) damage in the team’s last five games.
Gwen Crabb was the latest player to suffer such an injury in last week’s opening game of the Six Nations.
She followed Megan Webb and Alisha Butchers, both injured during the World Cup, and now head coach Ioan Cunningham is “looking at everything” for answers.
“We’ve had a conversation about it already and its natural with a performance that you look at everything, whether that’s something we need to do differently, the surface, the footwear, our programmes, so we are looking at everything,” said Cunningham.
“One thing our medical team are very focused on is injury prevention. They look at what is the programme to make sure that we are strong around our lower leg.
“Jo Perkins [the team’s head medic] does a lot of work speaking to staff within our pathway so young female players coming up are putting injury prevention exercises into their programmes from an early age.”
He added: “We also have to make sure recovery and rehab is the best and we’ve got some great examples here. Alisha and Meg came off ACL’s and they’re flying at the moment. Gwen [Crabb] will have exactly the same.”
Crabb is among the 25 female Welsh players handed professional contracts by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU).
However the timing of the injury, five minutes into the 31-5 win over Ireland, was particularly cruel for the prop who had just battled back from a broken leg.
In a social media post, she said: “I was in pure disbelief and kept telling the physios that I thought I was in a nightmare and that I couldn’t do this again.”
Wales captain Hannah Jones said the squad was “gutted” for the 23-year-old.
“We know this going to make her stronger and we’re going to be with her step by step,” said Jones.
“We’ve put a little care package together for her. She really liked that because she was a little down but I’m sure she’ll come back stronger.
“She’s very strong minded and if there’s someone that’s going to get injured we know Gwen’s going to make it back.”
