BBZ8800
Senior Member
Well, if that's the case, it's pretty stupid from our medical staff to do that. We should have eased him back in, not throw him in every game.
Imagine this:
Dembele returns in 2 Months.
He plays the first game for 20 minutes and he says that he feels a slight discomfort.
Doctors check him and there is nothing wrong, just a discomfort.
Would you play him in the next match for 20-30 minutes or would you return him ONLY to a light running for the next 2 weeks?
If you play him, a discomfort may turn into a new long term injury.
If you don't play him and let him only train for 2 weeks, he won't get a match fitness.
Fine, imagine that he trains only for 2 weeks and returns to a match after that.
Then again he feels a discomfort because an actual match is different from a training.
He goes to doctors, tells that he felt discomfort again and doctors can't find any injuries.
If you get my point?
It may happen that he will feel "something" for the next 1-2 or even for the next 10 matches.
If we'll bring him back only to trainings each time when he will feel discomfort, he may never return to a serious football again.
14 years ago, I have broke my knee ligaments (as an amateur footballer) and had to operate them.
After the operation, I was afraid to play (amatuer) football for 1 year.
I was just running and jogging.
When I started to play again, I felt discomfort (in the knee) after every match (even if I played only 10 minutes) for the next 6 Months.
Or it was slightly swollen or blue at a few spots.
My point: a discomfort is sometimes ONLY because you haven't played/run for months.
Sometimes it is psychological.
And sometimes it is because something is wrong.
But imo, every person who ever had some serious injury, will feel discomfort for some time when he returns on a field.
Imo, doctors sometimes can't be 100% sure whether a discomfort is just a minor discomfort due to a lack of fitness or something bad will happen.
I see that everyone is jumping on doctors on this topic as if they are some idiots in this story.
Just go back to a beginning of my post. If Dembele will stop playing each time when he'll feel something, he may never return.
Without matches his muscles will get weaker and weaker and when he'll eventually return, he will be prone to 100s of new, different injuries.
You know how players often after knee injuries suffer muscle injuries and similar, because they haven't run and played for Months?
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