Inter Milan Team Doctor On Football Injury Epidemic: ‘There Are More Injuries Every Season, There Are Causes & Solutions’ | OneFootball

Inter Milan team doctor Piero Volpi feels that injuries are becoming more common in football, but that there are “causes and solutions.”

Volpi spoke to Italian broadcaster Radio Anch’io Lo Sport, via FCInterNews. He gave his thoughts on the growing injury epidemic in football.

A team doctor is always going to have a hard job in football.

Injuries are inevitable, no matter how much precaution is taken. Mitigating them is not easy.

But over the last few years, things have gotten tougher than ever for team doctors like Volpi.

A dramatic sequence of high-profile ACL injuries over the last few weeks has really served to illustrate them.

All of Manchester City’s Rodri, Juventus’s Bremer, and Real Madrid’s Dani Carvajal are set to miss much or all of the rest of the season after sustaining knee injuries.

The same is true of 19-year-old Argentine attacking midfielder Valentin Carboni.

The teenager joined Marseille on loan from Inter during the summer transfer window. There was a lot of excitement about the move, but now an injury has completely derailed Carboni’s season.

Inter Milan Team Doctor Piero Volpi: “There Are Causes & Solutions” As Football Injury Epidemic Worsens

Inter team doctor Volpi called injuries a “constant and growing problem.”

“Injuries have been on the rise slightly for years,” he noted. “And it’s hard to contain injuries, whether more minor ones or longer ones like muscle injuries.”

“Or the even longer injuries like joint injuries.”

“Football is suffering from some difficult situations,” Volpi said. “One is the density of matches.”

“We have players who are playing all year round, twice a week,” he said.

More Training Sessions The Key

But Volpi stressed that “The problem is not playing too much – it’s not training enough.”

“We play on Sunday, and then on Wednesday in a cup match,” Volpi said.

The Inter team doctor noted that “There’s a cooldown on Tuesday, and the one on Wednesday in preparation for the match.”

“The qualities that a footballer needs today – strength, speed, endurance – are hard to all include in the weekly training plan,” Volpi said.

“Therefore, there are 240-250 training sessions. But only 25% of them are real training sessions.”

“That’s one of the prevalent causes,” Volpi explained.

The Nerazzurri team doctor noted that “Top players who always play get injured, but so do those who don’t play much.”

“Precisely because there’s a lack of an effective balance in playing time.”

“One of the solutions proposed that we share with Inzaghi, who’s a very intelligent coach, is giving more playing time to certain players.”

“Precisely to safeguard the players who play 4500 minutes in a season, while others in the squad play a thousand.”

“Since it’s not possible to change the fixture list, a balance of playing time is a solution,” Volpi said.

“Another is the five substitutions rule,” he added. “It was created for COVID, but then kept.

“This was for the protection of player health. But I think it could go even further, to six or seven substitutions.”

Volpi Argues For Reduction In Number Of Teams In Serie A

Inter team doctor Volpi then noted that “One proposal is to reduce the number of teams in the domestic leagues by a couple teams.”

“From twenty to eighteen.”

“You would then have a month in which to do more training and dedicate more time to national teams,” Volpi said.

“I’m in favour of national teams. But there still has to be a discussion, and a doctor at the table.”

Under the current setup, Volpi noted that “The density of matches increases in October-November, and then in March as the cup competitions are in full swing.”

“There are three fundamental qualities we must train,” he then said.

“Strength, aerobic capacity, and high intensity,” Volpi named.

“But these require training that is separate from the matches. And at the moment that’s not possible, so the risks increase.”