New rules under scrutiny amid NRL's injury pandemic

NRL greats have suggested an increase in the intensity of pre-season training, and the evolution the game has undergone are factors in a perceived increase in injuries.

This weekend alone, Tom Trbojevic, Nathan Cleary, Starford To'a and Phillip Sami have all gone down with hamstring injuries, and join a slew of stars watching from the sidelines with soft-tissue injuries including groins, calves and pectoral injuries.

Various rules changes, including the introduction of the six-again rule, has led to the game being played at speeds never seen before.

Speaking on Nine's Sunday Footy Show, Sharks great Paul Gallen suggested there has to be an end-point.

"These pre-seasons I've watched since I've retired... they are just squeezing a little bit more out of every player every single year," he said.

"They run faster, they run harder, and they run for longer.

"At the end of the day, they're humans ... at some stage they're going to break."

Former Blues coach Brad Fittler said the injuries to Cleary and Trbojevic this weekend both came after extended periods of play without stoppages.

He suggested unseen off-field stresses could also impact on-field injuries while referencing with a laugh that "animals don't do hammies".

"There's the stress on the other side of what they're doing at training. Yeah, they're trying to get better ... (and) live up to our expectations, (but) they've got families, children, there's a whole lot going on," he said.

"You know what it's like when you're under pressure, your neck gets tighter and straight away you hold your whole body gets tighter.

"I was looking at the injuries between Nathan (Cleary's) and I was trying to chase up Hammer's ... and Turbos and they were on the back end of real long sequences of play without tries. Maybe (we need to) look into if there's no stoppages at those 20 minute marks or it'd be interesting what data shows (around) maybe resting. Can we get fuel into them or will that work against them?"

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Fellow league legend Billy Slater added with the current rules, the game has been created to have more fatigue and "no stoppages".

Fittler explained some people involved in the game are skeptical on whether that's a good thing.

"I was speaking to some coaches from the Broncos before the game and their reasoning was are we getting the game too fast? Is it in our need to make it so entertaining?," he said.

"I think it's not (about) tinkering with the game, it's allowing the game to be itself ... our sport pushes you pretty hard compared to most sports, you're going flat out for 40 minutes.

"Sometimes if there's no tries, your biggest break is going to be 30 seconds for a scrum, 20 odd seconds for a drop out.

"I think we'll all find out in the future once we get all the data and information, because one thing the game's doing really well is collecting all that. And it's the only way we can learn."