A doctor believes Roma’s litany of anterior cruciate ligament injuries is “unique in modern football”.
It was confirmed earlier today that Rick Karsdorp has suffered a ruptured ACL, the latest in a long line of Giallorossi players to have that problem.
“It’s definitely something unique in modern football,” Dr. Silvio Rossi told Tribunale delle Roma.
A doctor believes Roma’s litany of anterior cruciate ligament injuries is “unique in modern football”.
It was confirmed earlier today that Rick Karsdorp has suffered a ruptured ACL, the latest in a long line of Giallorossi players to have that problem.
“It’s definitely something unique in modern football,” Dr. Silvio Rossi told Tribunale delle Roma.
“From memory I can’t remember many teams with such a nightmare to deal with. There are a lot of factors: the type of training, hasty rehabilitation, the ground, the studs.
“The studs are important now too, so many boots have rectangular or non-square ones and when you plant your foot you can get an unnatural twist.
“There’s no real explanation though. Bad luck, sure, but is it possible they could all happen like this?
“I really can’t give a scientific explanation, I’d say that all of these things are partially responsible, but to what extent in each case is hard to establish.
“Something hasn’t worked out though, that’s clear.
“The reasons for a cruciate ligament injury are basically two, overloading and twisting.
“The cruciate ligament sometimes has to take four or five times your body weight, and no player ash the muscular strength to support 500kgs.
“It’s curious though that 10 players have the same injury, and it also must be said that there have been a lot of muscular injuries, maybe there’s something to be looked at in terms of training.
“Today’s players have crazy physical demands placed on them, before you’d have at least three weeks of pre-season and you’d build up gradually.
“These days, after seven or eight sessions you have to play matches against Manchester United, Real Madrid…
“That’s definitely an important aspect, you can tell me it’s the same for other teams, and that’s true, but Real Madrid, for example, have 40 players and even then they have a lot of muscular injuries – look at Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale – but they have alternatives.
“That’s why they suffer less in terms of performance. If you look at teams who have done a complete pre-season, they don’t have injuries at this rate: I’m thinking of Napoli and Lazio.”