Football, the most popular sport in the world, has over 38 million licensed players. The number of injuries in football played by such a large audience, in addition to the treatment costs it will bring, also brings additional costs as a result of the athletes being away from the matches. Therefore, protection from injuries is of great importance for athletes and sports clubs. Orthopedics and Traumatology Specialist Doctor Utku Erdem Özer and the famous sports announcer Ceyla Büyükuzun, who had a conversation about sports injuries that occur especially in our country, brought the issue to the agenda in the digital media.
Op. Dr. Utku Erdem Ozer; Regarding the inability to stop football player injuries, Ceyla Büyükuzun's question "Why can't we stop injuries in football when everything is developing so much?" "Of course, it is interesting that injuries increase even more as medicine develops; We can say that the rapidly increasing fighting power is one of the factors of this, especially while the preventive part and the treatment part are developing. When we compare the football played 10-15 years ago with the football played now, football is played faster and more aggressively. Football players became more ambitious and determined. Of course, there was ambition and determination in the past, but the football techniques of that time were not as aggressive. In addition, the number of matches played in a season has increased even more. Most of the football players cannot find time to rest, even their vacation time is very limited. Especially muscle injury is much higher than the European average in our country. One of the most important reasons for this is the insufficient training grounds of our clubs. Training on rough ground poses a great risk for injury. Today, a team in the English league has an average of 10 training pitches, while for us, this number is two or three.” he replied.
Pay attention to the stadium floors!
Drawing attention to the importance of stadium floors in injuries, Opr. Dr. Utku Erdem Ozer; “It is very important for a stadium to have regular maintenance of the floor. Even at the Super League level, the number of teams that do this maintenance does not exceed the fingers of one hand. The reason for this is that most clubs avoid the maintenance of the stadium floor. The state gives the stadiums, but the clubs have to do the maintenance. The cost of this maintenance is quite high. Sometimes the money to be given to the football player is increased and the stadium is reduced in terms of floor. Weather conditions; rain, snow; can cause problems, at this point, the necessity of having more training fields emerges. After a heavy rain, that field should not be used for maybe 1 month, but if you train on that field the next day, all the grass will lose its property. This increases the risk of muscle and ligament injuries in football players.'' said.
