How fabric made from the same material as Coca-Cola bottles can fix your snapped shoulder

• Plastic from Coca-Cola bottles is being used to fix disconnected shoulder joints
• Several current and former Six Nations stars have had the 'Coke-bottle fix' 

• This includes Welsh flanker Sam Warburton, who has the most caps as captain  

Fabric made from the same material as plastic Coca-Cola bottles is being used to fix disconnected shoulder joints.

The injury occurs when the ligament holding together the collarbone and the shoulder blade snaps and the two become permanently detached, causing severe and often chronic shoulder pain.

The injury is regularly seen in rugby players – with several current and former Six Nations stars having had the 'Coke-bottle fix' – including Welsh flanker Sam Warburton, who holds the record for the most Wales caps as captain.

Others are Welsh team-mates Alun Wyn Jones and Leigh Halfpenny.

One in ten of all shoulder injuries are acromioclavicular joint – or ACJ – tears, and they can be caused by any big impact fall, such as coming off a bicycle or a rugby tackle

While ACJ dislocation used to be most common in professional sports people, surgeons are now seeing many more of these injuries as more of us take up outdoor sports.

Traditional surgical treatments included repairing the ligaments, or moving ligaments from another part of the body to replace them.

The procedure now preferred by surgeons involves using a braided suture made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the same recyclable material used to make plastic bottles.

Richard Evans, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Spire Cardiff Hospital, was an early convert to the procedure, called Lockdown, and has used it to repair ACJs in several rugby players.

Warburton, 28, tore his ACJ in 2008. He had a Lockdown operation, carried out by Mr Evans, and was back in training three months later, and playing first-team rugby after just 18 weeks.