Stephen Plummer has one of the toughest jobs in rugby. In a modern game where seasons overlap, multiple competitions are played at the same time, and the physical demands on players are at their highest ever, Plummer’s job as the Vodacom Bulls’ senior rehabilitation specialist is to fix whatever and whoever is broken. Quickly.
Having rejoined the Vodacom Bulls after a stint in football with Orlando Pirates, Plummer is relishing being back in the world of rugby and specifically back at Loftus Versfeld. He’s returned to a game that has changed a lot since he last worked in it almost a decade ago. Squad depth has never been as important as it is now as teams are involved in multiple competitions across hemispheres at the same time. But one thing remains the same – players get injured and somebody needs to fix them.
“Rugby players are physical freaks and they are here and playing this sport for a reason because they are super athletes. It’s a privilege to work with athletes like this,” he says in that calm and measured tone of a man who appears to be at perfect peace with himself and his process of helping players overcome an injury and returning even stronger than before.
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“I love it. I enjoy the one-and-one with the player and working on that whole mental and physical aspect of being the best that you can be and bringing that out in somebody. That’s one of my passions and I’m very lucky to work in this environment. I enjoy influencing people in that aspect. It’s very rewarding when you get a player back onto the field and see him performing better than he did before his injury.”
With vast experience in both football and rugby, Plummer sees a definite difference in the way the athletes in both sports react during rehab.
“There is a difference in the psyche of rugby players compared to footballers. In football the players tend to not attack rehab as much as they do in rugby. In rugby the players are a lot more driven to get back, while I’ve found in football they tend to hold back somewhat as though they are almost a bit more fearful from the injury. They seem a bit more hesitant whereas a rugby player seems a lot more determined to get back.”
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For Plummer, the mental side of rehab is as important, if not even more so, than the physical element.
“Rehab is as much a mental battle as a physical one. You have to switch the player’s mindset from being negative about the injury to a positive performance-based mindset. So instead of focusing on this being painful, you want the player to focus on the fact that he can actually do this and get it right and that it will help him on the field. It’s the old story of the two wolves fighting inside of you and which one are you going to feed. So we try and focus on the positive side because it helps to rehab a lot quicker.
“The mental and the physical is all one and I believe you need to incorporate all of that into the rehab process. It’s not just the injury, but you also need to look around the injury. It might be that your shoulder is affecting your knee. Trauma can actually affect your body and get stuck in your body, so it’s also a question of how you can release the trauma to positively get rid of the injury.
“So my job is looking after the player around the injury when he is injured so that he can get back to the field even fitter and stronger than when he left it.”