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An algorithm predicts injuries in rugby players.

November 11, 2025

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By Editor THE November 11, 2025 at 10:00 AM Subscribers

At Racing 92, a rugby club in the Paris region, a groundbreaking IT tool is under development. It will reduce the risk of injury by analyzing vast amounts of data and adapting training to the players' physical condition. Report.

A GPS sensor was installed by researcher Maxence Duffuler on the jersey of Naël Souid, then captain of the Racing 92 youth team. The player tested his posture and balance weekly on the stabilometry platform (top right). He was also equipped with a connected mouthguard to measure exposure to impacts (bottom right).

Photos: François Guenet / Divergence for Sciences et Avenir

This article is taken from the monthly magazine Sciences et Avenir n°945, dated November 2025.

"The Top 14 is an extremely competitive league. Apart from Toulouse and Bordeaux, who seem to have a head start, the rest of the league is generally decided by just a few points. And one of the ways to win is to have your full squad available. Managing injuries is a major strategic focus for the clubs.""s," explains Philippe Rouch, university professor at the Georges-Charpak Institute of Human Biomechanics in Paris, in the preamble. With colleagues from his laboratory and from the École Polytechnique Féminine (EPF) in Cachan, they are meeting today in Plessis-Robinson (Hauts-de-Seine) at the premises of Racing 92, a historic French rugby club, to take stock of an ongoing project: predicting player injuries using an algorithm.

Rugby Injury Algorithm