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Michael Carayannis and Tyson Jackson
2 hours ago.
Updated 2 hours ago
News Sport Network The Australian
There has been a trip to Melbourne, another to the USA. But this time the Sea Eagles called in the reinforcements.
Let’s dub it the rebooting of Tom Trbojevic 2.0 – with the helping hand of an English physio who flew halfway around the world to help with the repair of the Manly superstar.
Trbojevic is back to his scintillating best five games into his latest injury comeback having suffered his sixth hamstring issue in as many years. His blistering career was now in jeopardy.
Trbojevic has tried it all before. He has met with an expert in Melbourne before spending part of last off-season with reconditioning specialist Bill Knowles in Philadelphia.
Still Trbojevic was plagued by hamstring issues. The Sea Eagles took another path after he limped from the field in round 10 against the Dolphins when they reached out to Huddersfield-based physiotherapist Dave O’Sullivan.
Tom Trbojevic's injury history
Injury: Head knock
Year: 2021
Absence: 1 week
Injury: Shoulder
Year: 2020
Absence: Missed Origin series
Year: 2022
Absence: Season
Injury: Hamstring
Year: 2019 Absence: 8 weeks
Year: 2020 Absence: 13 weeks
Year: 2021 Absence: 5 weeks
Year: 2023 Absence: Pre-season
Year: 2024 Absence: 8 weeks
Injury: Pectoral
Year: 2019
Absence: Missed Finals series
Year: 2023
Absence: 14 weeks
Injury: Ankle
Year: 2016
Absence: 1 week
Year: 2018
Absence: 1 week
“He gave me a perspective on things and a few different things to work on,” Trbojevic said. “He showed why things happen and how to fire certain muscles and to know when you’re off and you’re on … you have routine and they’re always the same but you have routines for different days of the week and for games.”
Sullivan had worked with Manly’s head of performance Jon Clarke at English Rugby and the Wallabies. But in June he found himself at Brookvale Oval for two weeks trying to work on rugby league’s most troublesome legs.
Sullivan explains how he helped get Trbojevic back on track.
FIRST MEETING
“Tom’s hamstring was in great shape by the time I got there. The big thing for me to establish is what’s the root problem to be solved. Doing the same thing as everyone else and expecting a different result is just insanity in the words of Albert Einstein. He also said ‘If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions’. So it was very much this approach when I first started with Tom.
“My approach is slightly different and I have a step by step system where I take players through and it’s about earning the right to get to the next level so my system is able to work concurrent with the traditional approaches but it’s very much about finding what’s not doing its job and helping the hamstring rather than just more of the same and strengthening the hamstring.
“I started by asking Tom the question, ‘I haven’t felt the same since …’ And to be completely honest with you Tom actually gave me the answer within the first 60 seconds. He knew he wasn’t the same since a particular injury and that helped me massively put the clues together.
“From there we mapped out all his previous injuries in detail and drew a timeline in chronological order.
“We assessed his ability to tolerate load through all these areas of his body from his previous injuries to find what wasn’t doing enough work.”
WORK DONE
“We put his body in positions where his nervous system had no choice but to tolerate load. My rehab approach is not about strengthening muscles in isolation yet rather pit the body in positions where it had no choice but to tolerate load and very often we can then see quick changes.
“His hamstring strengthening work was top class by the Manly medical team so it was more about focusing on what wasn’t doing its job. I didn’t need to worry about his hamstring at all during my two weeks there.
“We put him in positions to get these to do more work. This then updates his nervous system to show it’s safe to tolerate load.”
CHANGING RUNNING STYLE
“100 per cent no. I said to Tom the most important thing he needs to do when he gets back playing is to relearn how to relax again and enjoy playing rugby. With complex cases or generally in life it’s easy to strengthen or tense a muscle it’s far harder to relearn how to relax as relaxation is important for co-ordination and timing of muscles working together.
“So specifically for Tom his hamstrings are doing a great job, if anything they’re doing too good a job and other areas of the body aren’t doing enough work which is often the case in these situations.”
THE HAMSTRINGS
“Tom’s hamstrings are among the strongest in the NRL and that’s based on objective testing. The key thing is that everything else does its job now to help his hamstrings.
“Tom has his best years ahead of him, he’s one of the most intelligent athletes I’ve ever worked with and a great problem solver which the best athletes in the world tend to be but he just didn’t know what the root problem to be solved was.
“As with rugby league you always need a bit of luck in a contact sport but I’ve got no worries whatsoever about his robustness or resilience and also on a side note I’d like to mention what a top guy and down to earth genuine nice guy he is and wish him all the best for future.”
2 hours ago.
Updated 2 hours ago
News Sport Network The Australian
There has been a trip to Melbourne, another to the USA. But this time the Sea Eagles called in the reinforcements.
Let’s dub it the rebooting of Tom Trbojevic 2.0 – with the helping hand of an English physio who flew halfway around the world to help with the repair of the Manly superstar.
Trbojevic is back to his scintillating best five games into his latest injury comeback having suffered his sixth hamstring issue in as many years. His blistering career was now in jeopardy.
Trbojevic has tried it all before. He has met with an expert in Melbourne before spending part of last off-season with reconditioning specialist Bill Knowles in Philadelphia.
Still Trbojevic was plagued by hamstring issues. The Sea Eagles took another path after he limped from the field in round 10 against the Dolphins when they reached out to Huddersfield-based physiotherapist Dave O’Sullivan.
Tom Trbojevic's injury history
Injury: Head knock
Year: 2021
Absence: 1 week
Injury: Shoulder
Year: 2020
Absence: Missed Origin series
Year: 2022
Absence: Season
Injury: Hamstring
Year: 2019 Absence: 8 weeks
Year: 2020 Absence: 13 weeks
Year: 2021 Absence: 5 weeks
Year: 2023 Absence: Pre-season
Year: 2024 Absence: 8 weeks
Injury: Pectoral
Year: 2019
Absence: Missed Finals series
Year: 2023
Absence: 14 weeks
Injury: Ankle
Year: 2016
Absence: 1 week
Year: 2018
Absence: 1 week
“He gave me a perspective on things and a few different things to work on,” Trbojevic said. “He showed why things happen and how to fire certain muscles and to know when you’re off and you’re on … you have routine and they’re always the same but you have routines for different days of the week and for games.”
Sullivan had worked with Manly’s head of performance Jon Clarke at English Rugby and the Wallabies. But in June he found himself at Brookvale Oval for two weeks trying to work on rugby league’s most troublesome legs.
Sullivan explains how he helped get Trbojevic back on track.
FIRST MEETING
“Tom’s hamstring was in great shape by the time I got there. The big thing for me to establish is what’s the root problem to be solved. Doing the same thing as everyone else and expecting a different result is just insanity in the words of Albert Einstein. He also said ‘If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions’. So it was very much this approach when I first started with Tom.
“My approach is slightly different and I have a step by step system where I take players through and it’s about earning the right to get to the next level so my system is able to work concurrent with the traditional approaches but it’s very much about finding what’s not doing its job and helping the hamstring rather than just more of the same and strengthening the hamstring.
“I started by asking Tom the question, ‘I haven’t felt the same since …’ And to be completely honest with you Tom actually gave me the answer within the first 60 seconds. He knew he wasn’t the same since a particular injury and that helped me massively put the clues together.
“From there we mapped out all his previous injuries in detail and drew a timeline in chronological order.
“We assessed his ability to tolerate load through all these areas of his body from his previous injuries to find what wasn’t doing enough work.”
WORK DONE
“We put his body in positions where his nervous system had no choice but to tolerate load. My rehab approach is not about strengthening muscles in isolation yet rather pit the body in positions where it had no choice but to tolerate load and very often we can then see quick changes.
“His hamstring strengthening work was top class by the Manly medical team so it was more about focusing on what wasn’t doing its job. I didn’t need to worry about his hamstring at all during my two weeks there.
“We put him in positions to get these to do more work. This then updates his nervous system to show it’s safe to tolerate load.”
CHANGING RUNNING STYLE
“100 per cent no. I said to Tom the most important thing he needs to do when he gets back playing is to relearn how to relax again and enjoy playing rugby. With complex cases or generally in life it’s easy to strengthen or tense a muscle it’s far harder to relearn how to relax as relaxation is important for co-ordination and timing of muscles working together.
“So specifically for Tom his hamstrings are doing a great job, if anything they’re doing too good a job and other areas of the body aren’t doing enough work which is often the case in these situations.”
THE HAMSTRINGS
“Tom’s hamstrings are among the strongest in the NRL and that’s based on objective testing. The key thing is that everything else does its job now to help his hamstrings.
“Tom has his best years ahead of him, he’s one of the most intelligent athletes I’ve ever worked with and a great problem solver which the best athletes in the world tend to be but he just didn’t know what the root problem to be solved was.
“As with rugby league you always need a bit of luck in a contact sport but I’ve got no worries whatsoever about his robustness or resilience and also on a side note I’d like to mention what a top guy and down to earth genuine nice guy he is and wish him all the best for future.”
