The Injuries at NUFC

[Guest GeordieAki]

 

Ok, I need to get this off my chest.

 

Now normally, I take it on the chin (as we have been doing for God knows how long) but seriously, this injury crisis is getting beyond joke.  Everyone keeps saying how this has never happened before e.g. the team doctors, the managers, fans (of all teams in general), the media, the pundits...I can go on and on.  But it doesn't make sense.  For instance, I sometimes have a look the physioroom.com website to compare the number of injuries we have compared with the rest of the premiership teams.  For once, Newcastle United are the champion...champion of the EPL Injury table.  Why are we ALWAYS suffering from an injury crisis?

 

And of course, I'm not only talking about the current injury crisis (which is shocking).  This has been going on for YEARS.  Sometimes, I go to physioroom.com, and again...we are the champion...or at the very least, we are always near the top of the league.  I can't remember the last time we had a fully fit squad and a 'selection headache'.  Come to think of it...has that EVER happened?  And if it did, for how long?  I'm getting fed up of reading the match previews..."he is injured, he's doubtful, he is out for the season (how many times have we heard that?!?!).

 

But I'm trying to think of the reasons for this consistent injury crisis and I can't think of many.  But I remembered talking to a mate of mine a while back about this, and he joked that Newcastle need better doctors at the club.  Ok, at first, I laughed at him and told him that he's crazy...but now I'm thinking...is he?  I mean, I always hear about players who are recovering from serious injuries praising the team doctors and the fitness staffs about the good job that they have put in, and that's what I based my knowledge on.  And that's fair enough if the treatment is good, but how do they know that they are doing it correctly...the players are not exactly knowledgeable in this field.  Look at Chelsea for example.  They never have injuries (even if they do, it won't matter.  They have two teams in one) but it could be because that they have world-class very highly qualified doctors (hell, Chelsea can afford it of course).  Maybe these doctors are the reasons for this...or maybe I'm wrong.

 

Or maybe the players are not being prepared properly i.e. warm up, cool down.  This responsibilites goes toward the fitness coaches.  But the same thoughts between doctors and fitness coaches are also in my head.  I'm not going to type it all but it is pretty much the same as the previous paragraph about doctors, so I'm sure you get the drift.

 

Or maybe their footwears are the problem.  As far as I know, Sir Alex, and I think Wenger as well, have banned any of their players from wearing blades.  Apparently they all wear studs...and look at their 'injury crisis'.  Some scientist believes that bladed football boots can increase the likelihood of getting injured.  Something to do with twisting and turning but your feet is stuck on the ground and can especially hurt your ankle and knees, and possibly the usual muscle injuries.

 

Other reasons?  I don't know, off the top of my head...the weather in Newcastle.  Maybe the poor weather is having an impact on the pitch and as a result, it can cause injuries.  Nah, that's crazy talk.  I've never heard of that before.  Correct me if I'm wrong but I never heard about 'Boro or the mackems having similar problems as Newcastle United, and they are in the North-East of England (or somewhere around the area...who knows?!?!).

 

What do you guys think?  Are there any reasons for this...or we just unlucky and cursed (as a certain Mr. Gullit had once said).  And what can we do about it?!?!  Probably nothing.  Sigh...I can't imagine what the season (or any seasons for that matter) could have been like if we are 'in the relegation zone of the EPL Injury table'.

[Baggio]

Are you related to Purple Aki?

[ElDiablo]

I'd say it was a combination of luck and warm up/cool down bit.

[CaliMag]

Said for ages that the physios an d the fitness coaches should be sacked. I think we got some new ones in and I believe Paul Winsper (long time fitness coach) recently quit. Hopefully we'll start to see a change.

 

Souness was a nightmare by the way. Trainings consisted solely of: Endless 5 a sides with bone crunching tackles... brilliant

[Ikon]

The Swedish league winners Elfsborg (my home team in Boras) had quite a few injurys before, probably one of the sides in the league that had most injurys. Then a while ago (maybe 2 years ago) they took in a new fitness coach.....After that there's hardly been any injurys at all. Except knocks and so on, hardly any muscle injurys or anything like that..

[Guest JamesD]

most of our current injuries havent happened in training though, and the few pulled muscles we have seems normal to me.

[Kitman]

I'd say it was a combination of luck and warm up/cool down bit.

 

Dunno.  Strange though.  I do hope we've invested properly in the best fitness & medical staff though, because to do otherwise would be bonkers

[Ikon]

It's easy to get a serious injury if you are rushed into heavy activity...Just like Owen with his last injury  :wullie:

 

Not that it had much to do with this thread....But i meant that he shouldn't of played in the WC..Of course easy to say afterwards, but still..

[ElDiablo]

I'd say it was a combination of luck and warm up/cool down bit.

 

Dunno. Strange though. I do hope we've invested properly in the best fitness & medical staff though, because to do otherwise would be bonkers

 

I think the standard of the fitness coaches depends on the standard of the manager, if I'm right in thinking most managers take their coaching staff with them wherever they go (the majority of the time).

 

Therefore they wouldn't necasserily know any better, as they have never seen/worked with any other team.

 

I just think it's strange we didn't have that many injuries under Bobby compared to when Souness came with his backroom team, where we had catalougues, like we have now.

Take Martin O'Neill for example, if they had the amount of injuries we had atm, they would be down to their youth team. But they aren't, and I just think until we get a good manager who will bring a decent team along with him, we'll continue to have a lot of injury problems.

[James]

Thing is, of our current injuries:

 

Bramble - took a knock, still in hospital with his injury.

Dyer - Leg Gash

Harper - Hernia

Parker - back

Duff - knee op, a few historical knee problems

Moore - hamstring, old injury

Bernard - arrived at the club as a dead horse

Krul - knee op

Carr - bruised toe aka cant be bothered

Ameobi - long term hip problem that is brought about by a condition you are very unlikely to have at his age.

Owen - Rushed back too soon by England

Emre - victim of a bad tackle

Butt - cold

Solano - groin tweak

Sibierski - cramp

 

They are either unavoidable, caused by someone else, or really minor injuries that we are just unlucky to have had at the same time, or otherwise the player has history with said injury.

 

Only Harper and Krul (who were both forced to play with injuries due to keeper crisis) could really be written down as avoidable

[Dave]

And Ameobi.

 

Agree though.

[James]

And Ameobi.

 

Agree though.

 

Shola would only be 50-50 by now if he had had the op in the summer - he would probably be going through some kind of preseason.

[Dave]

He could have had it before last summer though.

[Guest JamesD]

you cant really say that Owen's injury was caused by him being rushed back or not being fit. 

[Bad Mongo]

I agree with Taylor27. The injuries are too diverse to be caused purely by bad training. Wasn't it almost all hamstring injuries last year? Still, some teams always seem to be without injuries. Bolton. I wonder how they do it?

[James]

you cant really say that Owen's injury was caused by him being rushed back or not being fit. 

 

Players are something like ten times more prone to ACL injuries after a long spell on the sidelines, meaning that there majority of these injuries happen during preseason and shortly after injury comebacks. it is obvious that Owen wasn't fit enough from the step up from 5 months out injured to playing in the World Cup.

[Guest JamesD]

do you have a link or something where i could get info on the correlation between ACL injuries and recovery from previous injuries? not trying to be confrontational, i'd just like to know more about it.

to me, if owen had been fit and playing for almost 2 months, i don't see why his knees would be more likely to be damaged. seemed like a freak accident to me.

[James]

do you have a link or something where i could get info on the correlation between ACL injuries and recovery from previous injuries? not trying to be confrontational, i'd just like to know more about it.

to me, if owen had been fit and playing for almost 2 months, i don't see why his knees would be more likely to be damaged. seemed like a freak accident to me.

 

Not off hand, but I know that Shearer and Van Nistelrooy were used as examples.

[Guest TampaToon]

tough to put torn ligaments, broken metatarsals, and other collision-based injuries and the like on anything but luck, however the chronic hamstring injuries, muscle pulls, strains, etc could very well be conditioning issues.

 

smart teams in all sports are doing alot of work on core muscles (abs, back, hamstrings, glutes) with dynamic combination movements, unbalanced lifts and lighter weights to better simulate and prepare your body for athletic movement, and even implementing things like yoga and pilates to help prevent the typical niggling sports injuries mentioned above, which can worsen into long-term injuries or cause you to do things that contribute to major injuries.  nutrition and conditioning are also factors in making sure that your muscles are not to tight or that awkward movements related to fatigue don't cause problems.

 

not having lived anywhere near newcastle, i can't speak authoritatively of the following, but i'd imagine cold climate contributes to tighter and more injury-prone muscles, and the sometimes-infamous nightlife of younger newcastle players might work against any sort of fitness regimen in place - alcohol and lack of sleep aren't an athlete's best friend.

[GM]

Can't help wondering if better pitch maintenance is resulting in more injuries - the ground could well be much harder than it used to be as a result of under-pitch heating, covered stadia etc - and then you've got these so-called advances in boot design (which were blamed for Rooney's injury before the World Cup)...

 

Player injuries are also treated with much more caution (generally speaking) these days because of insurance clauses.

 

EDIT: and this too...

 

the sometimes-infamous nightlife of younger newcastle players might work against any sort of fitness regimen in place - alcohol and lack of sleep aren't an athlete's best friend

[Parky]

Can't help wondering if better pitch maintenance is resulting in more injuries - the ground could well be much harder than it used to be as a result of under-pitch heating, covered stadia etc - and then you've got these so-called advances in boot design (which were blamed for Rooney's injury before the World Cup)...

 

Player injuries are also treated with much more caution (generally speaking) these days because of insurance clauses.

 

EDIT: and this too...

 

the sometimes-infamous nightlife of younger newcastle players might work against any sort of fitness regimen in place - alcohol and lack of sleep aren't an athlete's best friend

 

We also do seem to buy players with questionable injury/fitness/motivational records.

[Nobody]

The Swedish league winners Elfsborg (my home team in Boras) had quite a few injurys before, probably one of the sides in the league that had most injurys. Then a while ago (maybe 2 years ago) they took in a new fitness coach.....After that there's hardly been any injurys at all. Except knocks and so on, hardly any muscle injurys or anything like that..

Fucker, I'm an AIKare

[Shearer9]

I remember at the end of last season, physioroom.com put up some long term stats about the number of injuries, and the link may still be around, someone used it for an article on the main site I think.  Anyway, the numbers were amazing.  We had one of the lowest rates of freak, collision based injuries last season, yet we had the highest number of injuries overall.  The number of muscle injuries, especially hamstrings, was higher than most clubs had in overall injuries.  There is something wrong here, and I think it's a combonation of things that have been brought up in this thread.  Weather, pitches, training, fitness, warm ups/cool down, fitness coaches.  Granted, this year there have been a lot of freak injuries.  But the setup still isn't right.  After the reign of Souness, it seems to me like Roeder's going over the head of the physios and being very, very cautious with injured players, which is a really good thing, imo.  But this also suggests that fitness is probably not where it should be to aid in the recovery process.

[Syrette]

I think it's little more than just bad luck. And a quite ridiculous amount of it. You can't say the injuries are all linked to each other since they're all in different places.

 

Ameobi's was a long time coming, Emre's was following a terrible challenge, Owen's was while on international duty, Dyer's was an unfortunate accident, Solano's is groin-related, Carr has rarely been very fit, Duff's was due to the way he plays, Bernard should never have been brought back in the first place.. etc etc.

[oldtype]

Just an interesting thought experiment that occured to me.

 

This is our injury list at the moment.

 

Harper (second choice keeper)

Krul (third choice keeper)

Moore (starting centerback)

Bramble (starting centerback)

Solano (starting rightback)

Carr (second-choice rightback)

Bernard (second choice leftback)

Parker (captain and starting central midfielder)

Emre (starting central midfielder)

Duff (starting left winger)

N'zogbia (second-choice left winger)

Dyer (starting central midfielder/striker/winger)

Owen (best striker)

Ameobi (3rd~4th choice striker)

 

If a similar thing happened to Chelsea, they would probably lose

 

Cudicini, Hilario, Terry, Carvalho, Boulahrouz, Geremi, Bridge, Lampard, Ballack, Robben, Joe Cole, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Drogba, Kalou

 

Which would probably leave them with the severely damaged (although admittedly still impressing) lineup of...

                                 

                 Cech

Ferreira Morais Essien Cole

           Makelele Diara

            Mikel Ballack

     Shevchenko Sinclair

 

 

Not to imply that our players our analogous in quality to theirs, but this should give you an idea of what sort of injury situation we're in. Even the most ridiculously deep squad in the premiership would be hard-pressed to ride out this sort of crisis.

 

These are the conditions under which we played and fought well today. I suppose they deserve a round of applause, no?