The Real Reason So Many Footballers Are Getting Injured This Season | FourFourTwo - video Dailymotion

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Another international break, another fresh batch of injuries. Hamstring injuries themselves are up 96% on last season already, so with that said... What's causing it all?

Transcript

00:00 Hello everyone, Adam here from, oh God, I can't be jumping about today.

00:08 It's Adam here from 442, but I don't want to do my hamstring because it's becoming a

00:13 problem and that's what we're going to talk about today.

00:16 So what day are we on today?

00:18 Well, it is Tuesday, the 21st of November and as of Tuesday, the 21st of November, there

00:23 has been 53 hamstring injuries in the Premier League alone this season, which is up already

00:30 on last season by 26, which is a bit of a scary trend and correlation.

00:36 So we're going to look into why that could be happening.

00:39 And I think some of the reasons are quite obvious.

00:42 So what is it?

00:43 Well, it's a battle, I think, between something called money.

00:47 You may not have heard of it, but money, people, people at the top of football, the governing

00:51 bodies, they really like this thing called money and they want to make a lot of this

00:56 thing called money.

00:57 And then it's that versus player welfare, which maybe they care about a bit, but not

01:04 enough to want more money.

01:06 So you've got money versus player welfare.

01:08 Now you ask what brings in more money?

01:11 Well, simply put more games of football.

01:14 The Nations League, for example, has been introduced in the last two or three years.

01:18 Don't think anyone's particularly a fan of it.

01:19 I don't think anyone's tuning in.

01:21 The Nations League's on tonight.

01:22 I've got to watch it.

01:23 You know, end of the day, it's a glorified friendly and another thing that they can dress

01:26 up as a competition.

01:27 That'd be UEFA, of course, in this instance, but it's extra games that the players have

01:32 to play at the end of the day.

01:34 And although the last international break that is still going on, but has just really

01:37 passed now, has been qualifying games, we've seen quite a few injuries in those alone.

01:42 So Warren Zaire-Emery, who plays for PSG, 17 years old, having a fantastic season so

01:47 far, did his hamstring in a 14-0, a modest 14-0 win against Gibraltar, a game in which

01:54 you'd have thought the French players probably would have just took their foot off the gas

01:58 a bit.

01:59 Maybe they did, because to be fair, if they went full throttle, it probably would have

02:01 been 36-0.

02:02 But nonetheless, a 17-year-old doing his hamstring in a game like that is quite telling.

02:08 Gavi as well for Spain, the young Barcelona midfielder did his ACL, so not his hamstring,

02:12 but it's telling that he's had to be running to the ground as much as he has because of

02:16 the amount of games that Barcelona have on Spain as well.

02:18 You look at Pedri, it's a miracle he's alive and kicking, to be quite frank, the amount

02:23 of games that he's played in the last two or three years.

02:26 But Gavi's followed suit and it's all really caught up on him.

02:29 So it's quite worrying really that we're seeing it so frequently now.

02:32 It also looks like it's going to carry on as well, which is quite a sad truth, because

02:36 as these governing bodies want more money, they want more games.

02:41 And next season, the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League are going to have 36

02:45 games in it with eight game group stages, which is just even more...

02:49 I mean, that's going to be played in the winter period.

02:50 So imagine now, but just another two club games wedged in there somehow.

02:55 I think in England, they're going to have to scrap the league up at this rate if this

02:58 is the way the game is going.

03:00 Not only that, but we've also seen the UEFA Conference League introduced recently as well,

03:03 which I suppose has some positives because it gives those teams like West Ham, for instance,

03:07 who won it last year, that European fairy tale.

03:09 I think it's great for the fans, but for the players as well, extra games, extra games

03:13 for a wider array of players now, not just the ones at the upper echelons of world football.

03:18 And of course, FIFA, yes, we all love FIFA, don't we?

03:21 The very honorable organization that is FIFA, they are making the Club World Cup go from

03:25 four teams to 32.

03:27 I don't have enough fingers.

03:29 32 as of 2025, the Club World Cup is going to be in the USA and it's going to have 32

03:34 teams in it.

03:35 So more games.

03:37 So let's turn our attention back fully to the Premier League.

03:39 There's been 56 hamstring injuries in the league so far.

03:43 This season, the previous high was in the 2020-2021 season, and that was just 40.

03:49 We're in November and it's 56.

03:51 This is a 96% increase on last season and a 55% increase on the last four seasons averaged

03:58 out.

03:59 So there's clearly a trend going on and I don't just think it's about the amount of

04:02 games.

04:03 I think there could be something else at play as well.

04:06 VAR.

04:07 Yeah, yeah, we're talking about it again.

04:10 I know, I know.

04:11 You can't avoid it at the moment, mate.

04:14 Here we go again.

04:15 You might recall Tottenham playing Chelsea a couple of weeks back on Monday night, a

04:19 game in which Chelsea won 4-1 and a game in which Tottenham had nine men and a game in

04:23 which there was about 55 million VAR calls.

04:26 Yep, you might remember the one.

04:27 It was pretty eventful.

04:29 But in that game, Micky van der Ven pulled up with a hamstring about 15 seconds after

04:34 a VAR call had finished and then play had resumed.

04:37 So it was about a four minute VAR call.

04:40 He'd been stood still.

04:41 So obviously he's been all in action.

04:43 His muscles have been being used and then he stopped, slowed down.

04:46 The game's paused.

04:48 It's resumed and he's pulled up when a long ball's gone over the top.

04:51 This could be a real overlooked problem because if you think about it, the reason players

04:55 stretch and warm up ultimately before a football game is to get the blood flowing and make

04:59 sure that the muscles don't get torn or pulled during play when they're stretching for things

05:04 and putting full weight on the muscles.

05:07 If you've got VAR, and I know that the Tottenham Chelsea game was a slight anomaly because

05:11 of how many decisions there was, but there's still a fair amount in every Premier League

05:14 game.

05:15 The amount of stoppages you've got, you've got players who just stand still, stop moving

05:20 for three or four minutes and then have to resume again.

05:23 And it's that sort of infrequency of consistent action for 45 minutes, working the muscles

05:30 that could really be straining these hamstrings.

05:33 I think that the fact there's been a 96% increase in the last year, it can't just be down to

05:38 game time because these are fit lads at the end of the day and the likes of, you know,

05:44 you're Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, these kind of players, years gone by, Wayne Rooney

05:47 when he was younger, they still used to play 60, 70 games a season when they were in their

05:52 peak.

05:53 It's probably been a five, 10 game increase.

05:55 So I don't know if that's enough games to see a 96% increase in one year in the Premier

06:01 League.

06:02 It's just a mixture of quite a few variables.

06:05 And I think VAR could be one.

06:08 So as if VAR wasn't being debated enough, just for the mere existence of it at the moment,

06:14 really, it could also be causing another issue.

06:18 So yeah, the lads in Stockley Park, go and deal with that one as well, because you're

06:23 going to have the NHS on your case soon.

06:25 What's even more worrying for the Premier League is, of course, in this country we love

06:29 and value, it's part of our culture, the Christmas period of football, where it's just endless,

06:34 nonstop, 24/7 football on repeat, never ending, every day, midweek, weekend, you name it,

06:40 football is on.

06:41 Now, we're not even into that period yet.

06:43 And the Premier League have stated that no club should have to go less than 60 hours

06:48 between rest in between games.

06:50 So a 60 hour break between every fixture should be the bare minimum for a Premier League club.

06:54 However, between the 21st of December and the 2nd of January, Chelsea will only have

07:00 143.5 accumulated hours of rest between fixtures in that, what, 11 day period, 12 day period?

07:09 They've not got a lot of time to really recuperate, rest and recover.

07:12 And they've got three games in that period.

07:14 And one final thing that's quite counterintuitive and ironic, really, is that I suppose it's

07:19 not the Premier League's fault or the owners of Premier League clubs, but with these governing

07:23 bodies introducing more games of football because they want more money, the Premier

07:27 League clubs and clubs around Europe as well at the top teams, in Madrid's, Barcelona's,

07:31 Bayern Munich's, they are all losing money on injury losses as well, being unable to

07:36 field these players.

07:37 So the statistic is, last season, all 20 Premier League clubs lost a combined total of 255.4

07:45 million on injury losses, which is a 70.8 million rise on the previous campaign before

07:51 that.

07:52 So it's getting worse.

07:54 The clubs are actually losing more money despite playing more games because they're losing

07:58 more players.

07:59 It's a convoluted mess and something needs to change.

08:02 So what's the viable solution?

08:03 Well, as it stands, Premier League clubs or the owners of Premier League clubs or any

08:08 club for that matter, haven't really sat down and discussed a solution with governing bodies

08:12 of leagues or, you know, UEFA and FIFA.

08:15 There's been no real discussions like that, no real parliamentary procedure to change

08:19 anything.

08:20 The Audiola did say two months ago, though, that players should perhaps start going on

08:23 strike just to reduce the game time.

08:27 If all the players banded together and refused to play, then that would make a statement.

08:31 And to be fair, I think that could be the most viable option.

08:35 Regardless of that, though, what is the fix?

08:38 You can let me know in the comments down below.

08:42 Should a player strike happen?

08:43 Should the League Cup be scrapped, perhaps?

08:46 Is that competition losing its value enough to justify freeing up some space for more

08:51 Champions League group games?

08:53 More Champions League group games?

08:54 I don't know.

08:55 I don't know.

08:56 I don't know what the solution is, but it's clearly catching up on the players.

08:59 The evidence is there.

09:00 The data is there.

09:01 So something needs to change.

09:02 You can let me know what you think it should be.

09:04 Do not forget to subscribe.

09:05 We love to see that number going up.

09:07 I will see you very, very soon.

09:09 Have a very, very lovely day.

09:12 Goodbye.

09:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]

The Real Reason So Many Footballers Are Getting Injured This Season | FourFourTwo

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