A health warning... on hazards of playing Quidditch
‘Need to introduce safeguards’
IT was a sport created for the magical world of Harry Potter.
But after being adapted by fans of the boy wizard ten years ago, Quidditch has taken off with real-life players the world over.
Following a safety study, however, doctors have now issued a health warning about the highly competitive, full-contact game.
The researchers – who are also top Quidditch players – found it can lead to high rates of concussion among those taking part.
This prompted the experts – led by Edinburgh University Medical School – to draw up guidelines to make the sport safer.
In the fictional Quidditch, created by author JK Rowling, teams compete on flying broomsticks. But the real-life version of the sport is, unsurprisingly, played on foot, with participants holding a broom between their legs.
Two teams try to score points by getting a ball known as the ‘quaffle’ into hoops. The game ends if another ball, known as the ‘snitch’, is caught.
But during a match it seems participants risk a variety of injuries. Of 348 players who responded to a questionnaire from the researchers, 180 had suffered a combined total of 315 injuries, including fractures and dislocations. Most were to the arms, legs and head and caused by tackles and contact with other players. Only one was from a broomstick.
The study, published in the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, found the overall incidence of injury in Quidditch was 4.06 per 1,000 hours of play, which was low in comparison with injury rates in other team sports.
For example, men’s amateur rugby league has been found to have injury rates as high as 114 per 1,000 hours.
But more than 21.5 per cent of Quidditch injuries were concussion – ‘relatively high’ when compared to studies of other full-contact sports.
In amateur rugby union, concussion constituted 4.7 per cent of injuries reported. Even at professional level, concussion formed only 3 to 10 per cent of injuries.
In total, there were 68 cases of concussion reported in the Quidditch games. The researchers believe this may be due to some players continuing their game after experiencing a head injury, instead of resting.
The new guidelines say players suffering a head injury should stop, get checked by a first aider and only resume play if given the all-clear.
Study co-author Dr Ashley Cooper, a junior doctor at Manchester Royal Infirmary and a former captain of the UK Quidditch team, said: ‘I started playing at university. I went along to a match, expecting it to be a group of Harry Potter fans with scars on their head.
‘I thought I would beat the nerds and it would be a good pub story. But I got tackled to the ground and the whole experience was amazing. It is a full-contact sport, mixed gendered, and the handicap is having a broomstick between your legs.’
Dr Cooper added: ‘It’s quite a new sport and there are injuries occurring, so we can see where we need to introduce safeguards.
‘We saw there were high rates of concussion so we have introduced a concussion protocol we believe has reduced the rate.’