Surely it must be time to stop this injury insanity.
By Tony Attwood
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It wasn’t a surprise that God Save the King was booed and the song ‘Lizzie’s in a box’ was sung in the build-up to England – Ireland, because, well quite simply, that is what happens at internationals. More international matches means more hatred, black humour, and rampant nationalism. Not to mention in many cases, crowd problems. That is basically how it goes.
Quite why under such circumstances international football continues may seem curious, but that is how it goes, largely (it seems) because there is a group of men (and a few women) who either get a buzz out of it, or (much more commonly) make money out of it by having jobs in organisations like the FA.
Much more puzzling is why the clubs put up with internationals, particularly as countries have a nasty habit of saying “here’s your player back, he’s injured, be sure to have him raring to go for the next match.”
So we have the headline which will come as no surprise: “Arsenal hit with fresh injury headache as Leandro Trossard limps off during Belgium’s Nations League defeat.” Of course he limped off, of course he is injured, this is an international in the middle of the league season. It is what happens. Apparently Trossard lasted 37 minutes. Now he’s out for… well, how long? Who knows.
The only good news is that Rice and Saka didn’t play so they couldn’t make their conditions any worse, and with some luck may have been improving.
Still, the countries are probably saying “Come on that’s an improvement. Last time around you lost Calafiori and Odegaard. This time its only one player. What are you complaining about? Be sure to have him ready for the next international.”
As for the cause: well that’s not difficult. International players have often not even trained together let alone played together before they get pushed out on the pitch. Matches are often imbalanced between big and little nations. It’s all rather stupid.
Just look at the league tables and time and again you will find minigroups with one country at the bottom with no points or maybe just one point. Qatar for example have no points, and are in a group with the Netherlands. How do you expect Qatar to play? Canada is another country with no points; Serbia has one point.
Of course, there is no blame on these countries for not doing well; they are either small or parts of the globe in which football is not particularly popular. But the craziness of it all is that the only thing these countries can hope for is to avoid a huge defeat. This means defending all the way with everything you’ve got, which sometimes might mean challenges which injure the opposition. Not deliberately of course, but because when you are defending throughout an entire match, that is what can happen.
And if that scenario is not bad enough, quite often these countries will be using players who have never ever played together. They have a few days of training and then the match happens. Of course, they are going to get out of position and caught out, when the system of defending is new, the fellow players are new and the opposition is ten times better.
What else does anyone expect?
The only ways around this are for the medical teams of clubs to exaggerate a player’s injury so he can’t go, or for players to be told that if they miss club games because of an injury picked up in an international, it will be up to the country not the club, to keep their wages going. (Although I think there is a rule against such an action, which if I’m right, shows what a bunch of toads the international football community is).
And it is not as if the media will ever show any support for clubs and players in this situation. In the Daily Mail article, “Arsenal hit with fresh injury headache as Leandro Trossard limps off during Belgium’s Nations League defeat” the writer reasonably says, “And if Arsenal are to be without Saka, then the injury to Trossard would be even more significant, leaving the gunners with just Raheem Sterling and Martinelli as their senior wingers.”
But then without the blink of an eye, it ludicrously continues, “Arteta’s side have received three red cards so far with Rice and Trossard sent off in draws against Brighton and Manchester City respectively….” suggesting somehow that the issue of the three red cards, itself contentious but now hardly relevant since the penalties for the cards have been served, is somehow related to players being injured in international matches and possibly not be available to play for the organisation that actually pays their salaries.
Them as if that were not bonkers enough they add, “And with injury issues seemingly deepening, Mikel Arteta will need to get his side moving in the right direction sooner rather than later if they are to sustain a title challenge.”
And how is the club supposed to do that when players keep being injured playing internationals over which the club has no control? We are not told.
And of course, Jesus is not the player he was, following injury on International ‘Duty’!!!!