serious injury to Gavi This has once again put on the table the madness that is the current football calendar with extremely competitive demands at both club and national team level. sports world Solves the problem with evaluation by football-related sports medicine experts like Doctor Jordi Ardevolwho was head of the medical services of FC Barcelona and president of the Spanish Society of Sports Traumatology; Juan Jose Garcia Cota, today Celta’s director of medical services after two decades at the Spanish team; doctor pedro luis ripollRipoll and de Prado Director and Specialized Traumatologist of the FIFA Medical Center of Excellence Jordi Suros, former doctor from Verona and now in his own office (Sportcat) with state-of-the-art technology. Everyone agrees on the need to stop this calendar and the impact it has on the overall physical development of youngsters like Gavi.
1
Is the current calendar acceptable with good preparation?
Doctor Jordi Ardevol
“I’m quite a pessimist, however you should never stop trying”
“It is somewhat complicated, one of the reasons in relation to the number of ligament tears is closely related to the number of concussions there are. To this we have to add the preparation time they have, a little recovery, a little opportunity for specific preparation. As a result, the answer in this regard is quite pessimistic. It is quite difficult, however we should not give up trying. There are many prevention techniques, many strategies, it is something that must be done, even though the demands are great and the time available is short.”
Doctor Juan Jose Garcia Cota
“Defense mechanisms slow down in states of fatigue.”
“It is clear that the more games are played, the greater the number of potential injuries. It is as if a person who drives more is more likely to have an accident. In today’s football, what should be given more importance is the rest period. It might be thought that injury to the ligament or meniscus occurs after the area has weakened, but the defense mechanisms we have depend on neuromuscular responses that react worse and are much slower in the stages of fatigue and exhaustion. This is why not getting good rest can put you at a higher risk of serious injuries like the one you just suffered. Gavi No matter how good preparation and training there is.”
Doctor Pedro Luis Ripoll
“You have to touch the calendar and manage the minutes played”
“We have already had eight cruciate ligament injuries this season and in the calendar year, 16. The injury rate is double what we would normally have in a normal campaign. The reason for this is the administration of minutes. We will not stop football from remaining competitive or even more competitive, but we will have to touch the calendar and reorganize it. We must take a forceful and decisive step forward regarding the structure of club and national team matches and combining both interests. it is inevitable. Clubs must be convinced that if they want to win the competitions in which they play, which are many, they must manage the minutes of their players. Otherwise, the list of injured will remain just as long or worse. However, we know that we are not going to change football, the demand will remain the same. Coaches, under pressure from their board of directors and the public, will continue to field the most competitive players in order to win. That is why strategies must be adapted to create a more homogeneous squad to allow for player exchanges without losing competitiveness. Real Sociedad and Athletic can serve as an example. Our mission is to try to prevent this problem of injuries throughout the football community.
Doctor Jordi Suroz
“Game load can accelerate bone maturation or cause osteoarticular injuries due to overuse.”
“One thing we have to take into account, and which is sometimes not said, is the race of each player. Each breed has its own etiology, its own shapes, its own progressive growth, but there is one thing to keep in mind when integrating everything, which is when the growth cartilage ends and that bone is already mature. Young players tend to develop microtrauma with increased workload and match overload, affecting bone maturation, which can accelerate it or cause osteoporotic problems or stress fractures due to overuse.
2
What effect will this have on young players who are still developing physically?
Doctor Jordi Ardevol
“The problem is not about being young, but about many other factors”
I do not think that the problem is that the player is young, but rather that many other risk factors exist, which are the player’s own, such as the size of the knee, the morphology of the lower extremities, but also other external factors, such as the preventive protocols implemented. The possibility of doing or not, the workload, which is becoming increasingly more intense, because every time we play faster, more games, with more intensity, more physical and this, at one time or another Causes injury.
Doctor Juan Jose Garcia Cota
“Children and teenagers are at higher risk of fractures.”
“Players who start playing at the professional level at an early age Gavi The organism is not fully developed until the age of 17, or adulthood in known others. And this is coupled with the fact that we expose them to a workload that is not very appropriate for their age. Now, here we also have to take into account the desire that a 17-year-old boy has to make the jump to the first team, so he would hardly refuse to take on that more intense job. No one will be able to avoid it, but that is why from the most direct environment we must try to minimize the risks because injuries will always be there. In children and adolescents we always say that the risk of rupture is higher and what is done in the operating room must be well managed. Recovery also recommends being more cautious, although this depends on the type of player and his body.
Doctor Pedro Luis Ripoll
“They have neither physical nor emotional stability”
“Speaking of the injury of Gavi, the speed of the process is determined by the slowest phase, which in the case of the Andalusian is the consolidation of the suture that must be done in the external meniscus of the 19-year-old player. It is relevant to say that the critical injury for healing is the meniscus because the preservation and protection of the articular cartilage depends on the preservation of the meniscus. The ligament is operated to protect the meniscus, it is operated to protect the cartilage and it is operated to protect the bone. For some years now, many players who have been seriously injured are not older than twenty years of age and others are barely older than that. Gavi, tears, canales, camavinga, This is due to a bunch of factors. Such expectations are placed on them which they are often not physically able to fulfill. They dispute a large number of minutes, although with their complicity because they are the first ones who want it to happen. But he has neither the physical nor the emotional stability to endure a tough challenge like a football competition. Others have overcome it but there are some careers that have changed.”
Doctor Jordi Suroz
“The best thing would be to give a dose to the youth so that their careers are not cut short”
“The young guys have physical trainers, nutritionists, recoverers… and if they are professionals, it’s a pleasure to work with them, but if you have a young player who doesn’t value it, that’s when injuries appear. Because if there’s an overload and the muscles don’t have the nutrients that they need, they draw energy from the muscles and that creates micro tears in the muscles and leads to injuries. Technically, There are many resources out there, from vacuum therapy to VacuSport to magnetic resonance imaging, to try to stimulate these tissues, although a lot of the focus has been on the physical issue, which is yet another burden to adapt to. Is it good or will it affect his maturity? The best thing is to give him a dose, otherwise his career may be cut short.