Peter Morrison's retirement and the many injuries the Iron suffered last season plus the injuries the England team had to deal with in this years world cup has forced me to ask the question, are the injuries in the game today more severe or is it that the medical staff involved in football are not as able as they should be?
I want to make it quite clear straight away that this is not a personal attack on Nigel Adkins nor the club doctor Dr J Zacharais as I have spoken to a man in the medical profession who is infact a Hull City Supporter who holds both men in the highest regard. This is an observation of English football not just at the lower levels but also at the top level of the game.
Are bad training methods being implemented? It has long been suggested that we lag behind our continental counterparts, but I have to agree with the common belief that we have caught up with them as far as training methods are concerned. Are we playing too many games? I have to say I think that we are asking players to play too many games at all levels of English football, even Scunthorpe last season played 52 competitive first team games without a single player being an ever present. This season we will probably play just as many, possibly more, but with a smaller squad at Brian Laws disposal.
We have seen how Steven Gerrard has suffered playing so many games while he is still growing and there is a distinct possibility that as a result of teams having to throw their young players in at the deep end at such a young age that more players will encounter similar problems.
I feel that the root of the problem lies with the medical staff employed across the country, many doctors employed are not sports specialists nor do they have any sports qualifications, they are simply GP's, surely clubs should employ specialists.
Last season we saw how Hull City suffered as a result of poor fitness, this highlighted the lack of fitness coaches employed in the game. I was shocked to hear that the head of Lilleshall whom all the physio's and doctors must report to has no medical qualifications!
Many doctors have worked for the same club for years and are now becoming old, these men despite passing their qualifications years ago have not retaken any qualifications to bring them up to date with new practices. The reason many of these doctors are still working in the game though is because they will not let their players be seen by another doctor.
As I said at the beginning of the column this is not an attack on Nigel Adkins nor Dr J Zacharais as I believe they are doing a good job, it is simply an observation of English football as a whole.