Battered Tigers in deep freeze treatment
David Beniuk and Ben Horne
April 7, 2011 - 5:59PM
AAP
Wests Tigers have turned to a revolutionary "freeze chamber" in a desperate bid to overcome the NRL's worst injury crisis.
Big guns Chris Lawrence (hip), Robert Lui (ankle) and Lote Tuqiri (arm) are among a long list of unavailable players, while captain Robbie Farah remains a week-to-week proposition with osteitis pubis, a condition notoriously difficult to overcome.
The club has shunned the ice baths and hyperbaric chambers for a three-minute procedure known as cryotherapy where players' bodies are subjected to temperatures of around minus-150 degrees.
The move could just be working with Farah declaring his groin had improved and backrower Gareth Ellis cleared to return from an ankle problem against South Sydney on Friday night.
Farah, who admits he may still need surgery before the end of the season, said the diagnosis of another tear had helped him train this week while he had also been in the "Cryolab".
"Hopefully I don't have to use it ever again, it's freezing," he told reporters on Thursday.
"It's a pretty torturous three minutes but they reckon it works.
"We just used it once the other day, it's more so just a recovery tool.
"Everyone got in there and it's kind of an alternative to ice baths.
"They think it's better than ice baths so we'll find out."
The process has been used by the NFL in the US and Super Rugby's NSW Waratahs and its operators claim it can increase recovery by up to 50 per cent, but more typically 20-30 per cent.
It does so by pumping nitrogen around the body to battle inflammation and to improve circulation and oxygen use.
It can also deliver a six-hour energy boost, according to Cryolab's Karl Benn.
"It's so much more efficient than an ice bath, an ice bath is really painful, this is really quick, it's only uncomfortable for maybe the last 30 seconds of the treatment," he said.
"But when you get out … (it's) as if you've had a few cups of coffee."
Benn said the technology was beginning to gain mainstream acceptance.
"The reason it hasn't taken off as quick as you would expect is it was developed in eastern Europe and the western medicine guys don't look at eastern European medicine as substantial enough," he said.
"That's why it's literally happening now and we're finding it really does work."
Farah admits his injury contributed to his mental state in last weekend's 24-6 thrashing by the Sydney Roosters.
"The fact it got out in the papers, I think it really played with my head a little bit before the game and I probably let it worry me a bit too much and I think that showed out on the field," he said.
"My preparation has been first class this week and I'm feeling fine."
He said the Tigers would not use their massive injury toll as an excuse.
"From the start of the year we've talked up our squad depth and we believe in that and we've got players there that at any club would be playing first grade," he said.
"Guys like Mitch Brown, Geoff Daniela that have come into the side, they're first grade footballers so we're confident with the 17 we put out every week."
