At a glance:
- Stan Collymore blames modern pitches
- Player welfare sacrificed for optics
- Tottenham’s injury woes this season unprecedented
Tottenham’s injury woes this season have been the talk of the town, and Stan Collymore has had his say on the matter.
Roberto De Zerbi’s side suffered a double blow against Wolves as both Dominic Solanke and Xavi Simons hobbled off the pitch.
While we’re still waiting to hear about Solanke, the Dutchman’s season is over after he ruptured his ACL at Molineux.
And Collymore believes the state of modern pitches is causing more injuries than was the case earlier.
Collymore’s brutal Tottenham rant
Tottenham fans have been discussing their injury woes on social media.
They have a retractable pitch at home, which is the case with some of the other grounds in Europe as well.
@ben_bowman_, a Tottenham fan, asked a simple question on X, which read, “What is the actual likelihood that our retractable pitch is a factor causing these injuries?”
And after seeing his post, Collymore set off on a rather astonishing rant as he blamed the modern pitches and the boots footballers use these days as reasons behind their recurring injuries.
“Modern pitches are a disgrace,” wrote Collymore on X.
“One ft of compact sand with an inch of half grass, half plastic fibres. Add the disgrace that are modern boots and the impacting in joints, bones and tendons is the equivalent of jolting on concrete.
“Original pitches had soft earth under grass, allowing checking, turning and impacts to be absorbed.
“Player welfare sacrificed at the altar of all-season optics.”
Tottenham can’t afford any more injuries
James Maddison, Wilson Odobert and Simons have suffered ACL injuries this season. Radu Dragusin also went through a similar situation last season, which is a sign that something isn’t going right for the club in that regard.
Now, obviously, we can’t attribute these purely to just bad luck or the state of modern pitches.
But Collymore is an experienced figure who played a lot of football in England back in the day, so he could be on to something.
Nevertheless, with just four games to go, Tottenham can’t afford any more injuries.
A rare piece of good news for De Zerbi is that Randal Kolo Muani is fit to face Aston Villa after reports emerged on social media that he has suffered a hamstring injury.
Tottenham face Aston Villa next and will need to put points on the board to stand a chance of avoiding the drop.
