Each Round during the Super Rugby Pacific season, we'll be providing an SKG Fitness Update on a player rehabilitating from injury. This week, we catch up on how Rupeni Mataele is progressing.
Western Force Fortescue Academy Tier 1 player Rupeni Mataele injured his right knee prior to joining the club. The Scots College (Wellington, NZ) product is the younger brother of Force winger Manasa Mataele and hopes to follow in his footsteps to pull on the Force jersey at Super level.
Unfortunately, he suffered an ACL and meniscus injury and had surgery in Christchurch before making his way over to Western Australia in February. His ACL was reconstructed using part of his patellar tendon and his meniscus was stitched back together.
Rupeni has since been working with the rehab team at the Force, initially via phone and zoom calls before he was cleared to travel. After six weeks of non-weight-bearing, he has begun to walk again without assistance.
Rupeni's rehab will progress through the following stages:
- Protection – limiting movement and weight-bearing to protect the repaired structures early on.
- Conditioning – restoring normal muscle patterns under lighter loads and progressive walking.
- Hypertrophy – developing muscle bulk in his quads, hamstrings, hips, calves and core. This phase will likely also re-introduce running and static rugby skills.
- Strength – restoring maximum strength to all muscles of the lower limb. This phase will also progress speed and agility training, focusing on quality of movement.
- Power – moving fast under high loads in the gym and gradually resuming rugby skills and drills with the squad.
Rupeni is on the road to recovery and we can't wait to see him back on the training track.
