Questions over session led by Navy Seal graduate that left lacrosse players hospitalized

Questions have been raised over safety after three Tufts University men’s lacrosse players remained hospitalized with a rare muscle injury on Monday after participating in a team workout.

The players became ill in the days after a “voluntary, supervised” workout that was led by a Tufts alum who is a recent graduate of the Navy Seal training program.

About 50 team members participated in the 45-minute workout. All were evaluated by medical professionals, with nine requiring hospitalization for rhabdomyolysis, according to Patrick Collins, the university’s director of media relations.

“They are responding to treatment and we hope that they will be discharged soon,” Collins said. “The university is addressing this matter with the utmost seriousness. It is appointing an independent investigator to conduct a thorough investigation as quickly as possible to determine exactly what happened before, during, and after the workout; assess the university’s response; and review its procedures and policies to determine what changes it should make to prevent this from happening again.”

Some team members have been medically cleared to resume training. All team practices have been postponed pending authorization from university medical personnel.

Rhabdomyolysis, also known as rhabdo, is a rare muscle injury which causes muscles to break down, leading to toxic chemicals entering the bloodstream. It’s a life-threatening condition that can occur after an injury or excessive exercise without rest.

Several experts told the Boston Globe that there were serious questions about the training session. “This is a failure of the strength and conditioning program – an epic failure,” Douglas J Casa, chief executive of the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut, told the Globe. “Somebody made a dramatic mistake in terms of how the workout was organized in terms of intensity, volume, recovery. Something was dramatically wrong.”

Collins praised the team’s reaction to the incident. “The team is a tight-knit group of young men who have shown remarkable resilience, understanding and care for each other throughout this episode,” he said. “We will continue to monitor and work with them closely, and we hope for a rapid return to good health for all involved.”

In 2011, 13 Iowa football players were hospitalized for rhabdo after an offseason workout, and in 2016 the university paid $15,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by one of the players. College training methods have been under scrutiny more widely in recent years, particularly as athletes train under hotter summer conditions.