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Howley's scaphoid injury explained | |
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Rob shows off his trophy - and his injured hand
Former Lions, Wales and London Wasps scrum-half Rob Howley is hanging up his rugby boots after failing to recover from a wrist injury.
The scaphoid (pronounced SKAY-FOID) is a little bone in the wrist that very few of us has even heard of. Most scaphoid injuries happen without the person actually realising they've broken a bone. Howley picked his up in February. But he still went on to help London Wasps clinch the Heineken Cup with a match-winning try a few months later.
The area around the break is normally painful, but because there is usually little swelling, it often gets mistaken for a sprain.
Where is the scaphoid bone exactly? It's a small bone which looks like a cashew nut located in the wrist that connects to the thumb. If you spread your fingers wide on one hand, you'll see a triangular "hole" appear by the lower base of your thumb called the "anatomical snuffbox". The scaphoid bone lives in there. How is it broken? The injury usually happens if someone has fallen heavily on their outstretched wrist. Howley's was broken when his hand was stamped on during a match.
Howley isn't alone - it's a very common injury which most sportsmen and women have suffered throughout their careers. David Beckham suffered the same injury not so long ago and went on to recover fully. How do I know it's broken?
How is it diagnosed and treated? But sometimes X-rays don't show the break because it can be very difficult to actually see, so a bone scan may be needed to confirm the fracture. For a full recovery, the bone needs to be fully immobilised. A doctor or a nurse will usually apply a cast, which will cover the lower arm, wrist and thumb. In June, Howley had a pin inserted in the bone, but it still failed to fuse properly. How long will a recovery take? A scaphoid break usually takes up to six to eight weeks to heal. However, as Rob Howley has discovered, it's a notoriously tricky injury to recover from because blood enters from the top of the bone, but most fractures occur to the middle or lower section.
This means the blood supply can't reach the fracture fast enough for a quick recovery.
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