Rugby will find every weakness in your body. If you're playing regularly, it's not really a question of whether something will give, it's a question of when and what.
I work with a lot of rugby players here in Rotherham, and the pattern is almost always the same. They play through niggles, they ignore stiffness, and then something escalates into a proper injury that keeps them off the pitch for weeks. A lot of that is avoidable. Not all of it, but a lot.
This post covers the injuries I see most often in rugby players and what sports massage actually does about them.
Neck and upper trap tightness
Scrums, tackles, rucks. Your neck and upper traps take a hammering every single game. Most players just accept the stiffness as part of the deal and get on with it.
The problem is, chronic tension in the neck and upper trapezius doesn't just feel uncomfortable. It limits your range of motion, affects how you hold your body in contact, and builds up week on week until it becomes genuinely painful or you pull something.
What I do with this is a combination of deep tissue work through the traps and levator scapulae, with specific attention to the attachments at the base of the skull. When those are tight, everything above them suffers. After a few sessions, most players are surprised by how much rotation they'd actually lost without noticing.
Shoulder injuries
Probably the single most common thing I see in rugby players. The shoulder is doing things it wasn't designed to do on every tackle and every lineout lift.
Rotator cuff strains are the big one. The four muscles of the rotator cuff are small, and they're doing enormous work every time you tackle, carry the ball, or land awkwardly. A lot of players have a low-grade rotator cuff strain that they've been playing through for months.
Massage won't fix a full tear. I want to be straight about that. If you suspect a serious structural injury, you need a proper diagnosis first. But for the chronic tension, partial strains, and restricted movement that most rugby players are walking around with, targeted soft tissue work to the rotator cuff muscles and the surrounding structures makes a real difference. I can reduce the guarding tension that builds up after repeated impacts and start restoring the movement you've lost.
Lower back pain
Forwards especially. The amount of flexion, extension, and rotation your lumbar spine goes through in a single game is significant, and the muscles around it take the strain.
What I find with most rugby players is that the lower back pain isn't really a lower back problem. It's coming from tight hip flexors, overloaded glutes, or restricted thoracic rotation. The lower back is just the thing that's screaming loudest because it's compensating for everything around it.
This is where proper assessment matters. I'm not just going to work the area that hurts. I'll look at what's driving it and treat accordingly. That's the difference between temporary relief and actually making progress. You can read more about how I approach this on my treatments page.
Hamstring strains
Sprint, change direction, sprint again. Rugby is relentless on the hamstrings, particularly for backs but honestly for everyone.
Hamstring strains are graded one to three depending on severity. Grade one and two strains respond well to soft tissue therapy during the recovery phase. Regular massage keeps the healing tissue pliable, reduces the build-up of scar tissue, and helps restore normal length and strength to the muscle.
The thing nobody tells you about hamstring strains is how important the rehab phase is. Players feel better and go back to full training too soon, the scar tissue hasn't remodelled properly, and they strain it again in the same spot. I see this constantly. Sports massage during recovery isn't a luxury, it's part of getting it right the first time.
Calf tightness and Achilles issues
A lot of rugby players don't think about their calves until something goes wrong. Then they really think about them.
Tight calves place increased load on the Achilles tendon, and Achilles issues are notoriously slow to resolve if you ignore them. Deep tissue work through the gastrocnemius and soleus, combined with specific work around the Achilles insertion, can significantly reduce the tension that drives these problems.
If you're based in Sheffield or South Yorkshire and you've got recurring Achilles tightness, it's worth sorting it before pre-season rather than carrying it into a new campaign.
Hip flexor tightness
Almost universal in rugby players. Lots of running, lots of time in a lowered position, and then the rest of life spent sitting at a desk or in a car. Your hip flexors are chronically shortened in most adults and sport makes it worse.
Tight hip flexors affect your running mechanics, your tackle height, and contribute to lower back pain. I work through the psoas and iliacus as part of almost every lower body treatment I do with rugby players. It's not comfortable, but the change in movement quality is usually noticeable the same day.
How often should rugby players get massage?
During the season, once every two to three weeks is realistic for most players. If you're carrying something, more frequently until it settles. Pre-season is actually the best time to build a proper foundation and sort out anything that's been quietly building up over the year.
I've worked with players across Rotherham and the wider South Yorkshire area at all levels of the game, from grassroots club rugby right through to semi-professional. The sport doesn't discriminate about who it beats up.
If you want to understand more about my background and how I work, take a look at my about page. And if you're dealing with something specific that I haven't covered here, I've also put together more information on the treatments I offer.
Rugby is hard on the body. That's not going to change. But how well you recover between games is something you can actually control.
Book a session and let's get ahead of it before it becomes a problem you can't play through.