The Mail Bag
Curiosity over our injuries
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I have heard many opinions about why we have such a serious problem about our players getting injured season in season out. There is the fact we are unlucky every season, and whether are players are prepared adequately beforehand. I have even heard from one person who blames the training ground as, going back a few years ago, Newcastle used the very same excuse for their injury crisis.
Now I am not one to speculate what the true reason is, as it seems all like conspiracy theories to me. However, there is one thing that does come to mind that makes me question the whole nature of our 'unlucky' problem, as it were.
I distinctly remember when Sylvan Distin signed for us. After he signed, he mentioned his medical and his surprise as to the results. "In the past seven years I have missed something like 15 league games so I have a good record and my age is not a problem."
So when we signed Distin, we got ourselves a dependable and fit player to replace the departed Lescott. Yet, 5-6 months into the season, the official site says he has a hamstring injury, expected return unknown. I may be wrong here and correct me if so but has Distin played since he was injured before the Athens game in December? If not, then he would be missing his 10th game this week, almost 2 thirds of what he has missed in the past 7 years.
So you can take your conspiracy theories, and your facts. I ask all of you simply one thing: is it just down to luck when one of the most consistent Premier League players falls to injury, just like all others before him, season after season?
It seems to me that Distin reveals that luck is not a factor, and maybe the conspiracy theories have some ground. I mean, when can we stop blaming luck and start looking deeper? By 'we', I mean the club — not myself specifically.
Christopher Ashton, Posted 13/01/2010 at 19:46:15
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Have you noticed that Lescott is now out injured — after being mostly injury free with us after a nasty injury while at Wolves?
I do think it is just luck and bad timing that so many key players are out at one time.
I consistently see players at all levels come out onto the pitch 30 minutes before a game, do a few runs across the park, a bit of a knock about and then start kicking a ball. Then after 10 -15 minutes they go back in and thats it.
In athletics, even before a single 100m run, the athlete will have a routine to warm up the muscles he will be using properly. A very slow warm up jog, then at least 15 minutes of stretches, then some more jogs to loosen off. Overall he will ’warm up’ for at least 30 minutes and thats just for one run.
In my (humble) opinion, players should not need to kick a ball before a game, they should warm up properly, especially the big muscle group like the quads and hamstrings, and not touch a ball until kick off.
They have all week to use the ball, they shouldn’t need 10 minutes of useless kicking around before a game. Fair enough if its after a proper warm up, but not instead of it.
All over the premiership (and others) you see a player pull a hammy and its well known that should only happen if the muscle is not properly prepared before using it.
All this also applies to training, a proper warm up is essential, not going straight into leathering a ball at each other before the muscles are properly warmed up.
Injuries to Pienaar, Arteta, Neville and Anichebe were all caused by tackles in matches.
Distin was probably caused by over playing due to too many injuries so no breaks - similar to Rodwell.
Pretty much every injury we have had has been picked up during games. If they were all injured in training then I can understand there may be a problem (Like at Newcastle) But the injuries and circumstances are all fairly freakish, meaning there is very little that can be done to prevent it - it’s just bad luck..
Don’t forget, a few years ago, we used less than 20 players in a whole season cos we didn’t get any players out injured at all.
I meant to add that obviously I don’t know what goes on at the training ground and living so far away I only see the odd game and warm ups, but it does seem that there is something going wrong to get so many muscle injuries (nothing to do with injuries from clatterings on the pitch obviously!) but I do know a few coaches who advocate leaving the ball alone before a game to make the players more hungry for it during the game.
But like everything, it's all about opinions!
When our squad was smaller we went through periods where we were quite lucky with injuries. In 2005 we only had one senior striker in the first half of the season — Marcus Bent — good job he did not get injured. Even last season the number of injuries was not too bad — it was just the long-term nature and the key personnel that were affected that made it bad — and it only really caused us a problem this season.
So no real case to investigate if you ask me. We simply get our fair share.
Regarding Lescott, he will be fit very soon after we have played City, convenient injuries are as much part of the game as piss poor referees and overpaid players.
It is normal that players get strains, it is just unlucky that they happened to get them all at the same time whilst our better players were out with long term injuries.
We have had previous seasons when we have been very lucky with injuries, so it is swings and roundabouts (even if it doesn’t feel that way sometimes!).
I’m a fitness instrcutor and personal trainer and I’ve watched how we warm up on a number of occasions. Everton use a style known as SAQ, which is speed agility quickness. This aims to replicate the type of movements commonly used in match situations and is a very effective technique. With regards to stretching etc, there is no real need to perform anything other than a cursory stretch of the lower limbs as increasing the range of movement at a particular joint could lead to injuries due to overstretching.
The only criticism I think you could level at the club is how well these injuries are treated. It seems that our players do not recover from injuries at the same rate as players at other clubs. Also are these soft tissue injuries caused by overtraining? We all know Moyes places a lot of emphasis on high levels of fitness.
I play vets league football and am never injured. Our best player is a South African tee total marathon runner who runs 10 miles 3 times a week and plays Rugby Union on the wing. He’s had 2 hamstring injuries in 2 seasons.
shit happens, even to fit athletes.
No proper injuries for my first 9 years, despite national level competition and some dubious training methods. Never missed a training session through injury.
Then, I got a back injury that stopped me fighting for ever. I got it in an accident when teaching a complete beginner.
The injury was sustained in one of the safest situations I could be in, after having regularly been in some fairly dangerous situations for a number of years. It was just bad luck. Life is like that. Sometimes you get good luck sometimes you get bad luck.
To say Distin’s history "proves" the problem is not down to luck is just, I am afraid, nonsense.
However, I am not saying his injury is or isn’t mainly down to luck. I’m just saying we have no proof either way.
As an aside is it not comforting to hear that the other lot are beginning to catch us up on the injury front — just before the derby?
Most teams now move onto plyometric warm ups where static stretching is hardly used. The muscles are stretched as they would be moved during a game. Hamstrings dont get stretched statically when your playing so makes sense to replicate in degrees what might happen during a match.
Search the BBC web site for Readings warm up video and you will see exactly how it should be done.
@Tony Waring....I think if you look back 30-40 years ago you will see that players in all of sport probably played "hurt" more often than today. If you went out of the first team with injury there was absolutely no guarentee that you would ever see first team football again. Now, if you are a player, and you have a MINOR injury that might lead to something more severe, the risk/reward tells you to sit it out. Too much money at stake, and absolutely no risk to first team football. For example, Saha has hamstring issues. All the time. He sits out a game or two now and again. His place is certainly never in joepardy due to budgets, size of squad, other injuries, etc. It’s football in 2010, not 1970. The players in 1970 were smaller, slower, and probably hung over beyond all expectations. God protects those types!!!
Also, don’t discount the number of fixtures either. Top flight players can play a ridiculous number of matches in a year. In the 08/09 season, C. Ronaldo played 66 matches. I think 40 years ago, the most matches played would be 15 less.
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1 Posted 14/01/2010 at 03:58:07
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Aren’t all our players in full training now though? I think Jagielka, Arteta, Rodwell, Gosling and Anichebe are all almost fit. Osman and Neville are now back and Yakubu and Yobo played the full 90 mins the other day for Nigeria.