Premier League players are at risk of suffering further injuries if the current three substitute role doesn't change, a leading physiotherapist has told football.london.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and his Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola have both asked the Premier League to rethink its fixture scheduling, following injuries to key players in the past few weeks.
Recent research has revealed that soft tissue injuries are up by 15 per cent and with teams only able to make three substitutes - compared to five in European competition - further injuries are inevitable as the season progresses.
Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT specialises in sports medicine, runs his own clinics in the US and has started his own YouTube channel explaining injuries to football players. Based in Los Angeles, he told football.london that the impact on players is likely to get worse because of the congested fixture list.
"It's considerable [the impact]," said Dr. Brar, DPT.
"It's not only the short schedule but now you have the short turnaround time from the restart to this season. You're wearing the players out. It's a huge risk for soft tissue injuries. I was reading some research that soft tissue injuries are up by 15 per cent from this period to last season.
"When you put excess stress on players it leads to injuries. You have the international breaks during a pandemic and it's overloading the players with wear and tear on their bodies. None of these injuries to me are a surprise unfortunately.
"Now you have the added issue in the Premier League of no five sub rules, so you can't take players out even if you want to rest them.
"There has to be adjustments when it comes to fixture schedules. I understand the financial implications of that especially with no fans right now and especially a team like Arsenal who depend on the box office.
"Fans want to see players and if you're risking any of your players you're not looking at the medium or long-term. There has to be something looked at whether it's subs or reducing the amount of games. There's also an onus on managers - they have to be better with rotations as well."
Could there be a way to combat injuries and lessen the chances of players spending time on the sidelines? Brar suggests that rotation is the biggest way to reduce the impact on players right now.
"Trent Alexander Arnold has just got injured and he played every minute this season. With [Mikel] Arteta we've seen him rotate in the midfield and I think part of that is to reduce the risk.
"Whenever you have significant jumps in activity it's a risk. We always see an increase in injuries when you go from training camp, to pre-season, to regular season.
"In this case we went straight to regular season so it's an even bigger jump and a larger risk for injuries. What concerns me now is that you have this season, the Euros and the Copa [America] next summer. Then you have the next season after that on a shortened summer. It's terrible when it comes to player health and safety."
