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Safe football, will it ever happen? I wrote some time ago about long-term injury in soccer here and concluded that the clubs and the soccer authorities need to do more to make the sport safer. The blog was mostly about life after sport and how professional soccer players have a far greater incidence of serious health problems such as Alzheimers, Dementia, plus Osteoarthritis due to so many operations, than the standard population. Since then I have been following research on the subject of injuries in soccer, and also is there any way to make soccer safer while still retaining its appeal to fans? Does anyone know how to keep adults safe in football? To me it is harrowing. VAR has come in and shown just how much dangerous tackling goes on in football. Often such things passed me by before but the slo-mo replays can show how feet, ankles and legs get targeted by boots flying in and also players getting trod on. The other area is heading where there is often a clash of heads by players going up for balls, and there are also elbows, etc., banging into players and sometimes knocking players out. This can mean dangerous concussions of which the safeguards need to be increased as they can lead to long term damage. A big report with big results A large-scale study conducted by the MLS in America is most revealing in this regard. A full report with a lot of interesting data This was its methodology: Methods: A web-based health management platform was used to prospectively collect injury data from all MLS teams between 2014 and 2019. An injury was defined as an incident that required medical attention and was recorded into the health management platform anytime over the course of the 2014-2019 seasons. Injuries and exposure data were recorded in training and match settings to calculate injury incidence. Results: A total of 9713 injuries were recorded between 2014 and 2019. A mean 1.1 injuries per year per player were identified, with midfielders sustaining the largest number of injuries. The most common injuries were hamstring strains (12.3%), ankle sprains (8.5%), and adductor strains (7.6%). The mean time missed per injury was 15.8 days, with 44.2% of injuries resulting in no days missed. Overall injury incidence was 8.7 per 1000 hours of exposure, declining over the course of the investigation, with a 4.1-times greater mean incidence during matches (14.0/1000 h) than training (3.4/1000 h). Conclusion: Between 2014 and 2019, the most commonly reported injuries in MLS players were hamstring strains, ankle sprains, and adductor strains. Injury incidence during matches was 4.1 times greater when compared with training, while overall injury incidence was found to decline during the course of the study period. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23259671211055136?icid=int.sj-full-text.similar-articles.9 Is there an alternative to consistent injuries? Which means that virtually every player has to cope with injuries, both short and long term. My point being here is does this have to be inevitable? Is there an alternative? Even Jesus cannot save himself First I must say that these results would be replicated pretty much anywhere professional football is played. If we take Arsenal over the Arteta years, Jesus, Timber, Smith Rowe, Tierney, Nketiah, Tomiyasu, Partey, Martinelli, Elneny and plenty of others if I sat down to really think about it. I have named almost an entire team. Newcastle at the moment have a long injury list but every team suffers from it. Why is there no talk about bringing injuries down to a very low level? That surely should be the starting point, could changing the rules ensure that teams have their first choice players always available so sporting competition is fair? There is no question, this level of injuries threatens the long term future of the game. Will Timber's instant injury blight his career? It seems to me that ground (and just above it) tackling and aerial battles are the two areas that are the most dangerous. Can football survive without both? I think that heading would have to go as how can players necessarily know that other players are going to jump for the same ball? What about tackling consisting only of clean takeaways with both players on their feet? And here I would have to introduce a wildcard and that is jersey pulling. It plays its part in knocking players off balance and at risk of injury and also allowing for elbows as they try to knock away the player dragging them. Yes, most times it is players going down as if dead, clutching their heads even if the elbow missed, but not always. Eyes and heads can be severely hurt. Ah, but what do the fans think? Would we watch it? I don’t know but I feel I would. The ancient art of dribbling would come back as would ball control, accurate passing, and crucially, delays for injuries would be slight, allowing for free flowing football. VAR would have as its role the position of the ball mostly, offside, handballs, etc., so it would cease to be a nuisance. Injury time would be minimal. Referees would have a far easier time as there would be less reason for cards and the constant dissent that is prevalent in modern football would disappear. Ok, football is big business. These changes could severely impact interest in the game and if that is the case the authorities would be dead against it. Fancy playing with this in your leg? I posit that one day they may have no choice. Outside of certain sports, injuries at work are rare, even in so called dangerous areas such as mining and construction, Qatar World Cups aside, of course, And that Qatar experience is perhaps the benchmark of what I am saying. Why did so many people die and get injured in the rush to produce the massive infrastructure for the World Cup? Because Qatar had huge money to invest in it a blind eye was shown to any inconveniences in their own governance and to the death toll involved in building it. Enormous amounts of money were spread about the soccer world to ensure that dissent was stifled. But that was a one off. And it seems like they got away with that one off. Soccer will remain on the injury train? But soccer is ongoing. Injury levels as ascertained in the above report may not be sustainable forever. Will parents continue to encourage their kids to take up a sport where injuries are common and no one wants to change the rules to make them safe? I feel I can safely say that the only way to make football safe is to implement the changes above, no heading, no shirt dragging, no going to ground, no tackling that will cause a player to fall over, no shoulder charges as they are almost never true shoulder charges but rather elbows and pushes. It would be different, for sure, but probably more skillful. Enough to compensate for the lack of physicality? I don’t know. But I can tell you this much. Football needs teams of referees/officials that are not likely to come through at the moment. It is the fouls and the physical challenges that cause the most difficulties for officials/VAR and the greatest frustration for fans watching. In my scenario posited above, with aerial battles gone, going to ground gone and pulling shirts gone, fouls would be very easy to recognise. No need for arguments. Most dissent could be banished. Crucially, players could go about their business without too much worry about serious injury or their long term future with so many screws holding their joints together. A pure football game is the answer I’ll leave you with a quote from Steven Gerrard, one of the greats of English football: “I’m sitting here now with screws in my hips,” said the former Liverpool captain. “I’ve had about 16 operations, I’m struggling to go to the gym at the moment. That’s all on the back of earning a living in English football.” Stevie G. - struggling like an old man because of wild tackles We ask the footballers to continue paying this price. Do we really need to? Can we not even talk about truly making the game safer? Are we certain that without the elements that cause these injuries, the game would not be attractive to the fans? Would vibrant football skill not be enough? Why not?