Coping and emotional responses to surgery by injured professional rugby union players

Coping with and emotional responses to sports injury have been increasingly researched within the scientific literature. However, few studies have examined the psychological effects of surgical intervention on professional athletes who have suffered serious injury. This chapter identifies the coping behavior and emotions experienced by professional rugby union players’ pre- and post-surgery. A mixed-methodological, qualitative dominant, approach was utilized with five professional rugby union players who required anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Each player was interviewed on three occasions (after initial injury; pre-surgery; and post-surgery). In addition each player completed a self-report diary, as well as three quantitative questionnaires: Emotional Responses of Athletes to Injury Questionnaire (ERAIQ; Smith, Scott, O’Fallon, and Young, 1990); Sports Inventory for Pain (SIP; Meyers, Bourgeois, LeUnes, and Middendorf, 2003); and the Coping with Health, Injuries, and Problems (CHIP) inventory (Endler and Parker, 2000). Content analysis was conducted on both pre (11 higher order themes) and post (10 higher order themes) surgery data, which were coalesced into the general dimensions Approach Coping, Avoidance Coping, Negative Emotions or Positive Emotions. Findings indicated instrumental coping strategies and social support were used consistently to manage emotional characteristics of surgical intervention, while negative emotions are replaced by positive following successful surgical intervention.