Objectives To report hip adduction and abduction strength recovery of rugby players during a full training and match-week, and to examine the relationship between session load, daily hip/groin pain, and provoked groin pain, on changes in hip strength. Design Repeated measures design. Setting Training facility. Participants 32 male rugby players. Main outcome measures Hip adduction, abduction, and adduction:abduction strength ratio measured using a ForceFrame at select timepoints throughout an 8-day period. Results Time demonstrated a non-significant main effect on strength, with no significant changes evident post-training. Post-hoc analysis revealed a significant decrease (p = 0.003, 0.49Nm/kg, 23%) in adduction strength (1.67 ± 0.45Nm/kg) immediately post-match compared to baseline (2.17 ± 0.51Nm/kg), with a 13% decrease evident 48-h post-match (1.89 ± 0.25Nm/kg), before returning to baseline 96-h post-match (2.04 ± 0.57Nm/kg). Similarly, post-match hip adduction:abduction strength ratio (0.84 ± 0.19) was significantly lower (p = 0.006, mean difference 0.16, 20%) immediately post-match compared to both baseline (1.03 ± 0.23) and 48-h post-match (0.97 ± 0.25). Session load demonstrated a moderate-to-good relationship (Pearson's r = 0.60) with changes in adduction strength, and a fair relationship with changes in abduction strength (r = 0.31), and hip adduction:abduction strength ratio (r = 0.43). Conclusions Rugby players may benefit from more than 48-h recovery after match play, in an effort to restore baseline hip adduction strength, whereas training sessions during match-week do not seem to affect any strength measures.
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