The injuries being suffered by Leicester City and around the Premier League are “absolutely normal” because of the “insane” number of minutes players are being forced to play, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has said. City saw Harvey Barnes stretchered off and Jonny Evans hobble down the tunnel during their defeat to the Gunners to take their tally of injuries to eight.Arsenal also had to take off Emile Smith Rowe during the clash at the King Power Stadium.
Asked about the game’s three injuries,
Mikel Arteta said: “It’s absolutely normal that it’s happening. That was why we needed to change our players because if not we were going to force our players to get injured, but sometimes you don’t have that chance as a manager because you don’t have enough players, or you have the emphasis to win and you play them again. But it is insane the amount of minutes these players are playing without any pre-season, without any break. You’re going to get injured. We talked about it, all the managers raised our voices at the start of the season, and it’s happening.”
Former City physio Dave Rennie also tweeted his reaction to the injuries suffered by City, and said they were difficult to forecast for medical staff, and therefore difficult to prevent.
Dave Rennie said: “Accountability for injuries is not the sole responsibility of any medical team. They are multi-factorial which is why they are so hard to prevent, not least during a pandemically clustered season.”
