{"id":296249,"date":"2023-11-06T13:24:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T13:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=296249"},"modified":"2023-11-06T13:24:36","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T13:24:36","slug":"football-is-gripped-by-a-crisis-with-more-injuries-than-ever-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/football-is-gripped-by-a-crisis-with-more-injuries-than-ever-before\/","title":{"rendered":"Football is gripped by a crisis with more injuries than ever before"},"content":{"rendered":"
Vincent Kompany wants a cap on appearances. Pep Guardiola has told players to take the fight to FIFA.<\/p>\n
Jurgen Klopp is constantly aghast at fixture scheduling. Virgil van Dijk claimed that while \u2018players are getting paid well, it should not come at the cost of our health\u2019. Kevin De Bruyne branded new laws on extended additional time as nonsensical. Raphael Varane said the game has reached \u2018a dangerous level\u2019.<\/p>\n
Why? Because more Premier League players are getting injured than ever before. It\u2019s become a crisis.<\/p>\n
\u2018It feels that now we\u2019ve hit a critical point,\u2019 says Tony Strudwick, the ex-Manchester United head of performance and now director of medical services at West Brom. \u2018There is research suggesting that injuries costs Premier League teams around \u00a345million per club for loss of earnings through position in the league. It\u2019s a huge amount.<\/p>\n
\u2018As an industry, you don\u2019t want to sleepwalk into a situation that impacts the wellbeing of players but also the quality of the product. We want the best players out there every week.\u2019<\/p>\n
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The Premier League has been gripped with an injury crisis with more players getting injured than ever before (Brighton star Solly March pictured getting taken off on a stretcher)<\/p>\n
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Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have led the protests over scheduling in football<\/p>\n
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Nothing is been done though despite the heavy spate of injuries (Pedro Neto pulled off with a hamstring injury against Newcastle last month)<\/p>\n
The finest midfielder in the country, De Bruyne, hasn\u2019t been that for some time. A hamstring issue lasting months is a consequence of a lack of rest. Thirty five others had suffered similar injuries by the second international break of the season \u2014 a 125 per cent increase on last season\u2019s 16, as numbers crunched by leading data analyst Ben Dinnery show, and a 90 per cent increase on the average of 19 over the last five seasons.<\/p>\n
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson unrolled a piece of A4 paper at a press conference last month which had a list of his injured players on it. He said he\u2019d never known a crisis like it in all his years, and 400plus matches in Premier League management.<\/p>\n
\u2018There are so many at the moment that I forget. (This list) is just in case I had forgotten any,\u2019 he said. The number of injured players was in double figures and seven of them had hamstring problems.<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t a great deal of sympathy when Liverpool\u2019s Van Dijk made his comments over the last international break, largely owing to the eight-figure salaries afforded to the top flight\u2019s biggest assets. But the data indicates there is a problem that needs fixing.<\/p>\n
Of the \u00a345m average loss by clubs, \u00a39m accounts for wages paid to those who are unavailable with \u00a336m based on their underachievement compared to their expected finish in the league.<\/p>\n
The 2020 research paper \u2014 written by co-founder of data and AI company Zone7, Eyal Eliakim \u2014 lays bare the financial trouble it causes. With rising wages and more games missed, the number now will only be higher. One source wondered what figure Chelsea\u2019s would have reached last year given their squad size, underperformance and busy treatment table.<\/p>\n
Speaking to various experts within the game at the highest level, the consensus is that these three factors interacting with each other are contributing to an epidemic:<\/p>\n
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Kevin De Bruyne – the finest midfielder in the country – has been out since August with an injury<\/p>\n
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Virgil van Dijk received little sympathy after claiming that while \u2018players are getting paid well, it should not come at the cost of our health\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018People are breaking in greater numbers because of the intensity of the game,\u2019 says Mark Leather, formerly of Liverpool, Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers. \u2018It\u2019s only a matter of time before somebody sues a club for the lack of welfare, the lack of due care and attention given to their requirements.\u2019<\/p>\n
The additional playing time, implemented at the World Cup, was \u2014 as one source says \u2014\u2018dropped on clubs\u2019 right before the campaign started.<\/p>\n
According to some well-placed club estimates, teams are running an additional five kilometres per game on average due to the time-wasting clampdown. For some, their pre-season training has not been adequate to deal with the extra loads placed upon players.<\/p>\n
Last week Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta called for an increase in the permitted Premier League squad size \u2014 it is currently 25 \u2014 and even suggested doubling the number of substitutions teams are allowed to make in a match, from five to 10.<\/p>\n
Dinnery, an advocate for 72-hour gaps between games to aid recovery, said: \u2018We always talk about the pre-season training programme as being almost the cornerstone for every season.<\/p>\n
\u2018Studies in the past have shown that the more sessions a player undertakes in the preparatory phase ahead of a season, the more robust they become, the more able they are to tolerate the training load and match schedule.<\/p>\n
\u2018But there\u2019s a fine balance between commercially what is done with players on pre-season tours and that disconnect with what coaches, medical departments and sports science teams want.\u2019<\/p>\n
Another source said: \u2018The stoppage time changes are seismic and pretty much underestimated at the moment, the reduction in dead ball time and a five per cent increase in relative intensity. It\u2019s a massive difference.<\/p>\n
\u2018The Premier League stands out for peak speeds and high intensity. It\u2019s an outlier by an absolute mile.\u2019<\/p>\n
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Raphael Varane has suffered with a number of injuries and has claimed the game has reached a ‘dangerous level’<\/p>\n
Stoppage time is not always the wild numbers routinely flashed up on boards when the season started yet is still higher than previous years. That, coupled with managers demanding relentless high pressing, has led to some wondering if football adopts the approach of rugby in signing \u2018finishers\u2019 from the bench.<\/p>\n
There is also the Premier League\u2019s multi-ball system, brought in at the start of last season to increase the speed of the game. It deprives players of even a miniscule break mid-match.<\/p>\n
The evolving styles of play is also crucial. Coaches want to train how they plan to play. Dr Katie Walker-Small, PhD, has worked alongside Southampton on hamstrings and said: \u2018What we often observe is a lot of injuries including hamstrings do occur in fatigued situations.<\/p>\n
\u2018If we train in a fatigued state we can potentially have different types of alterations within muscle architecture, which strengthen the hamstring unit and better maintain strength in fatigued conditions. As they are associated with the highest risk of injury that could be a strategy used for injury prevention.\u2019<\/p>\n
Strudwick also believes the pressure put on players is contributing to them overdoing it during downtime. He is keen for regulation on outside coaches hired by players, who often work through the summer and during days off.<\/p>\n
Kompany\u2019s idea of capping games was certainly thought-provoking. The Burnley boss, who suffered an avalanche of muscle injuries as a player, ventured a ceiling of 60 games for club and country. Last year, that would have impacted 55 stars across the world.<\/p>\n
Nobody featured more often than Manchester United\u2019s Bruno Fernandes, who hit 70 appearances. His club, who recently took head of sports science Gary O\u2019Driscoll from Arsenal, are conducting a review into 16 of Erik ten Hag\u2019s squad suffering injuries already this term. Across town, City have also experienced a higher number of issues.<\/p>\n
Leather would tweak Kompany\u2019s proposals. \u2018Someone could make 40 appearances but play a fraction of the time of somebody who has played the same number of games so minutes is a fairer restriction,\u2019 he says. \u2018Get an agreement as a starting point as to what the number should be and if it doesn\u2019t make a difference then the next season you play less.<\/p>\n
\u2018Once you\u2019ve accrued all your minutes, even if you\u2019re heading towards the business end of the season, tough cheddar. Make it a rule and if you break the rule you are into point deductions and fines. Take the decision away from coaches, owners and players. Without doing anything we will never know. Something has to be done.\u2019<\/p>\n
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Burnley manager Vincent Kompany has proposed a cap on the number of appearances for players<\/p>\n
Strudwick has another idea. \u2018Should there be a health and wellness committee? A bit like in the NBA and NFL, with certain regulations on the time you can work with your players. If that was to happen here it\u2019d be a small working group who say that we can\u2019t just let this drift.<\/p>\n
\u2018We clearly feel it\u2019s an issue that\u2019s going in the wrong direction and we have to put things in place.\u2019<\/p>\n
Some clubs pinpoint Qatar as a catalyst (and now there is the likelihood of another winter World Cup in Saudi Arabia in 2034).<\/p>\n
\u2018The Qatar World Cup really started to impact their bodies,\u2019 one source says. \u2018There was overloading and extensive travel. Niggles came from that, the pressure it puts on your body.\u2019<\/p>\n
With a condensed break in 2022 to cater for the World Cup, and a short one last summer, there is a belief that proper recovery has been lost.<\/p>\n
\u2018What is it going to look like after Christmas, when we have had a lot more games?\u2019 another source asks.<\/p>\n
\u2018The trend is probably more injuries. If people like Klopp are highlighting the player welfare and not a lot is being done, then who are we going to listen to?<\/p>\n
It’s All Kicking Off\u00a0is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football, launching with a preview show today and every week this season.<\/span><\/p>\n It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify<\/span><\/p>\n Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n