Rotherham United fans got to where they dreaded the pre-match interview last season because there was often another player on the injury list.
The Millers had an unusually long list of injured players from the start of the season until the last week – Shane Ferguson started the season injured and managed only nine games at the end of the season. Jamie Lindsay started his season in November, Grant Hall was another who missed the season and went on to play in eight games, scoring once. Lee Peltier had various injuries during the season but did play twenty-eight times, Captain Sean Morrison had injuries on and off last season while we lost Christ Tiehi in March with an abdominal problem. Andre Green was just getting into his stride when an Achilles injury put paid to his season and he’s still a doubt for the beginning of next season.
We brought Peter Kioso back early from his loan spell with Peterborough but he played just twelve games before he limped off with a hamstring problem in March which was the last we saw of him. Tyler Blackett was another scored his first goal in October but was also out with a hamstring problem until ‘at least January’ which lasted the rest of the season. We were missing Cameron Humphreys with the same problem from mid-September until February.
However, why were there so many wounds? And why were training sessions the setting for so many of these incidents? The two previous managers complained about the training ground surface before Steve Evans took over in April, and they even started attending some training sessions at New York Stadium.
All of the teams, from the Premier League to the lower leagues, reported more injuries than normal during the previous season, so Rotherham wasn’t alone.
Many articles have claimed that players are playing too many games. Regarding the Premier League, perhaps it is accurate, but I’m not so sure that there are more games than there were previously. Additionally, VAR is used in the Premier League, which
I’m not sure how to respond to this, other than to say that since football is a physically demanding sport, perhaps players are getting hurt more frequently these days?
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