Dislocated Shoulder

Not me, my middle lad.

He’s 16 – plays rugby at academy level and had a dislocation of his left shoulder at the start of October last year.

He’s had months at the physio, done loads of rehabilitation exercises;  and in the gym, and on the physio’s table his shoulder is stronger and feels better than ever.  Training has been going well, building up to full contact and this morning he played his first half of match rugby; strapped, padded and warmed up.

He came off after 20 mins with another dislocation. He tackled with his right, and his left shoulder popped out.

He is distraught. His whole life outside school has been taken away. For as far as he knows another 6 months.

We’ll be back at the physio when they can fit us in, and I’m looking at MRI scans to get some imaging next week.

Does anyone have experience of regular dislocations and what can be done to put it right? We’ve had stage 1 remedies and it’s time to move to stage 2.

But I don’t know what that is…

Anyone?

I had a “habitual” dislocation, must of done it 30 times or something crazy like that.

I could reduce it myself at first but gradually got worse.

Once it’s been done once, it’s generally always easier to do it again.

I have dislocated it when twisting to put a jacket on!

I got surgery and (touch wood) it hasn’t happened for over 20 years.

However, I wouldn’t dream of playing rugby or another contact sport with it.

Sorry that post doesn’t help with your lad though.

There will be someone along with more knowledge than me, but as I understand it there’s a relatively simple operation that can resolve the problem. Tightens up the elastic band that holds it in (forgive my lack of medical terminology). I imagine NHS waiting lists will be your biggest problem.

Stage 2 might be considering Touch Rugby?

Can appreciate his passion and talent is for contact rugby, but he’s got his whole life ahead of him to risk likely further injuries to his shoulder

https://www.englandtouch.org.uk/play/how-to-play/

I dislocated my right shoulder quite a lot – it all started with a partial dislocation when I was a goalkeeper at hockey and someone took my shoulder with them as I slid through and took the ball. Happened quite a number of times without a full dislocation – then on a dry ski slope I knocked it fully out. Had it put back in at hospital and did the various strengthening exercises etc. dislocated it again properly playing hockey and it was very loose after that. I have up hockey for a while and tried to strengthen it as much as I could.

In the end I had surgery to improve it – I’d ripped some tissue off the bone so they drilled a hole into the bone and put in a post – then sewed the tissue back to the post. I wouldn’t say it’s perfect / good as new – but it’s so much better than it was.

That said I wouldn’t dream of playing rugby with it.

Same as above, I dislocated my shoulder when I was 30. I did quite a bit to strengthen my shoulder. Didn’t really make any difference. After the first time it came out many times. In the end got surgery snd it’s not come out since. I am now conscious not to get into dangerous positions though. Definitely wouldn’t be playing rugby.

ive done both sides once, skiing and kayaking. In both instances I had physio, the second time I went private and used a football physio who although medieval, did get me back together pretty well and gave me some good lifelong exercises

The kayaking injury was very difficult to deal with mentally as I was an obsessive paddler and could not contemplate not paddling while I healed and also potentially not paddling again. I was therefore obsessive about the exercises and I have not dislocated again in nearly 30 years. I have had a couple of twangs in very bizarre situations but that is all – I still do a specific crucifix stretch that he gave me.

Its a head game though, in the early days I would look at particular move on a river and think, mmm, thats going to strain my shoulder. It’s hard to deal with that kind of thought process, my method was just to paddle more and do more exercises until I put more and more distance between the injury and ‘now’, until my shoulder got stronger and stronger. It’s definitely not held me back, I paddled much harder grades as I got more confident (and wiser).

It sounds like his second dislocation is almost a freak incident – I can understand how it has happened but it seems very difficult to predict a dislocation in those circumstances. Do you know what sort of dislocation it was? I was able to identify the exercises to specifically target my shoulder weakness. TBH I went exercise mad, I was doing 20 pull ups every couple of hours, 50 press ups, theraband stretches etc etc all evening. 6 or seven hours paddling at least once a weekend, maybe twice

I was veered away from strapping as it was suggested if I needed it strapped, it wasnt strong enough. This was a long time ago, things may change of course.

Get in touch with the God of shoulders – Dr Leonard Funk! He’s operated on most downhillers, skiers and rugby players.

He sorted mine out after repeat dislocations!

Home Page

I dislocated my left shoulder 1 week before my opportunity to attend England U20s rugby trials (Apologies for the weak humblebrag)

Shattered my wishes and dreams at the time

I have since found surfing, rock climbing, biking and all kinds of other adventures

I just wish Touch Rugby was as widely available back then when I was a teenager as it is now in 2024, I play it now and find it has 95% of the fun with perhaps 5% of the injuries (mainly ankle injuries on 4G artificial pitches, grass pitches are so much better)

If your lad continues with the contact rugby, surgery is available. I’m sure he will have every opportunity to recover and come back stronger.

I had it done and I retain full mobility and strength in my shoulder, but I knew my playing days were over, as hard as it was to accept at the time

Loadsa professional rugby players have the tell-tale surgery scars and continue playing, but they have the best health care available and it is their job which pays the bills

He’ll make the right decision for him, just take this time to reflect

Send him healing vibes and good luck from all at the forum who have scars and stories to share

I can’t add much for the help in recovery but my sympathies are with your lad.
My shoulder has rattled and sub-luxed for 30 years since I dislocated it as a teenager. Got into kayaking for work and met a point where I couldn’t progress as my roll just wouldn’t work and I would pop it out again. Had to knock that off after a nasty one that needed 2 doctors and a LOT of gas and air to get back in.
My son is hyper mobile and has dislocated his thumbs and shoulders doing innocuous things many many times. Rest is the only thing that fixes those. He’s never had one on the rugby field, amazingly, it’s always weird stuff like picking a bag up at a stretch!
My only advice is to help your son see beyond rugby, I know that’ll be hard, and that healthy shoulders are more important in the long run. That’ll be tough.

As above, given his age and what he wants to do, see an excellent shoulder surgeon like Leonard Funk mentioned above. He was an honorary Professor in my old department, very highly thought of and both his advice and surgical skills are excellent. I wouldn’t hesitate to send patients in his direction.

Thanks for the replies and the link to Dr. (Mr.?) Funk, quite close to us and definitely worth a visit.

As to the suggestions that he should look at touch, if that’s all that’s left he might as well play league…

I’ve had multiple dislocations of both shoulders. I think I was somewhat vulnerable through slight hypermobility but in both cases it took one ‘serious’ knock to start them off, then they were progressively easier to repeat. Eventually I was doing things like very small jumps on the MTB and having it dislocate on landing. Actually once it happened on take-off when I did the preloading, that was at Jedi/UK Bikeskills on one of the gap jumps, it’s …not a good way to go off a ramp. Also did it to myself up a ladder, out of my depth swimming, it’s damned inconvenient really.

Left shoulder was fixed by a tightening up repair of the labrum, Bankart repair it’s called, I think someone referred to this up the thread, it’s done via keyhole surgery these days I think but back when I was 20 it had to be opened up.
Right shoulder many years later it was deemed by the surgeon as too far gone for that to work, they gave me a “Laterjet procedure”. This involves a bone graft and muscle/tendon transfer, it’s a bit more full-on obviously. This was done via NHS. The surgeon said he usually sees rugby players and boxers for this kind of thing.

Both took some fairly dedicated and lengthy physio. After the physio finished I carried on with some rehab-focused personal training to really work on strengthening my shoulders to try and avoid having to go through all this sort of thing again.
I have some decent scars but otherwise things function well, I don’t worry it anymore. If I lost any mobility in the joints it was only the ‘hyper’ part. I kept up the trainer and am stronger than ever before too.

24, Fellow rugby player here and had a few years of sublocation (and improper recovery afterward) before a full dislocation last year. Had the bankart repair in may, just beginning to venture back into playing again now but will expect to be fully back in September. Shoulder specialist I saw had a good track record of people returning to contact sport after surgery.

To OP, North West you’ve also got Matt Ravenscroft and Nicholas Phillips. I came across both of these when I was getting my AC joint fixed – ended up on NHS after about 2 years, but the consultant I had has retired.

Once a shoulder has been dislocated, it’s going to go again, and you know what the docs will say about certain sports. NHS will want your led to let it heal naturally rather than subject someone to surgery. Private may be the only option.

Don’t forget surgery isn’t always the right answer, and carries risks.

I think an AC joint separation is different from a shoulder dislocation?

I separated my shoulder from the collarbone (grade 3/complete tear of ligaments) last September and had conservative treatment (physio), but given I’m left with a free floating collarbone which pops in/out all the time, and had quite a few comments from various medical professionals saying “that doesn’t seem right” – I’m seeking a second opinion from a private consultant in the North West.

Did you go see Matt Ravenscroft and Nicholas Phillips? Rate them?