Sligo Rovers boss John Russell on League of Ireland injury crisis and steps taken at Showgrounds to minimise problems
Some top League of Ireland clubs have been reporting an alarming number of injuries so far this season.
Sligo Rovers boss John Russell has a theory on what is driving the injury crisis in the League of Ireland this year.
So far this season his team has covered over 2,600km getting to away games - but that’s just one factor and it’s not relevant to all Premier Division clubs.
“The first is the amount of games, there are two games in a week and the way it’s structured,” he said.
“You had the first few games, then a break and it’s game, game, game. That has an impact.
“But for us at Sligo, people forget, it’s great we have two home games but you travel some amount. Every second week we’re away from home travelling to Dublin or travelling to Dundalk, Drogheda wherever.
“Where Dublin clubs, Pat’s play away to Shelbourne, they’re in Dublin, there is no travelling which you recover quicker, that is definitely a factor.
“You look at Shamrock Rovers, huge amount of injuries, Derry, I don’t know you hear different stories about astro to grass and grass to astro, is that having an impact because the training facilities are probably not as good as they should be in this country?
“It keeps going back to facilities, maybe that is a huge part of it.”
Russell is pleased with how his squad has shaped up injury-wise this season, despite losses of Max Mata, Fabrice Hartmann, Will Fitzgerald, Nando Pijnaker, John Mahon and Simon Power.
They have mostly been impact rather than muscle injuries - and Russell believes his investment in the close-season on medical staff is paying off.
“I learnt a lot last year, I changed the medical team and the set-up here at Sligo, because we knew we’d have a smaller squad as well and the learnings in terms of muscle injuries,” he said.
“We increased the medical side. We have two physios now. Ray Finan has come back, I worked with Ray when I was at the club as a player back in 2010 and 2011.
“Then we’ve got James O’Donnell, who would have played in the league before for Bray and Athlone, and was at Sligo as an academy player.
“We brought in a sports masseuse, Kevin Brady, so that has been a big plus for us. Then on the strength and conditioning side, I brought in a guy called Tom French, who I worked with before at Galway United coming through.
“There is another guy working under Tom on an internship, Jason Butler, and again it’s an extra body to keep an eye on the players when they are doing their gym sessions.
“There have been huge strides made in the background on a shoestring budget.
“A lot of these guys are doing me a favour, to be honest, they are not coming to Sligo for the money. I’ve just got personal connections with these guys and they know how I work.
“So that’s been a real plus. As I said, we are happy with how the players have performed so far, we’ve just been unlucky with the injuries.”
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