Another one back from a long injury tonight immediately pulls hamstring in first game.

What on earth is going on here ? Some people are clearly dangerously incompetent……..it really is beyond belief that we are allowing this to continue to happen. It’s a joke. My postman could do a better job and he knows nothing about it.

Rak Saki - I agree there’s definitely something wrong - I’ve never known this amount of hamstring injuries - it’s not just us it’s across the board in the Prem..!!

Just what is it..??

Is it the boots, the ball the amount of training - I just don’t know..!!

I had a theory - in the Prem it was the amount of extra time - average c.15 mins a game - that’s an extra c.6 games over a 38 game season.

Then VAR - all the stop start..!!

But this happened in a u21 game - so none of the above - so blows my theory..!!

It’s got to be down to training methods..!!

Whatever way you look at it something ain’t right..!!

COYP

It's not just us. I saw a report that Hamstring injuries in football are up dramatically.

And this was on the beeb site...

[Link]

"You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead"

Stan Laurel

No. Firstly, not all of our players grew up playing cage football, and for the few that did, 1. didn't play it exclusively and 2. haven't played it consistently for years.

It's 100% linked to our training & recovery schedules and medical/physios advice.

Rak-Sakyi is another example of a player being told is ready but clearly is not and gets injured immediately - that's now Eze, Olise and RS in the space of a week.

The Mail is reporting tonight that Olise is out for a minimum of 2 months.
With JRS also out injured I guess Hodgson is going to have use Franca.
Schlupp will remain first choice, but frequently is substituted or occasionally gets injured.
Hodgson may also need to find a way of playing to accomodate both Mateta and Edouard.A case of needs must.
Neither Franca nor Ahamada are natural wingers and it will be a shame if they are shoehorned into roles that they are not cut out for.

If it is true that Olise is out for a minimum of two months,then probably down to that useless old man's very poor decision making,bringing Michael on when we had irretrievably lost the game and probably costing our place in the Premier League without this irreplaceable talent.

So maybe we have seen the last of Michael Olise is a Palace shirt.
What a way to bow out. He probably can’t wait to get fit and sign for a new club, if he passes the medical.

Following Palace since 25 Feb 1978

It's not just us. 40% of Premier injuries are now HSI's.
Growing problem in top level soccer.

We have had a half-time tactical change now with Olise on the weekend, and that went well didn't it!

As for hamstrings, they're notoriously bad for reoccurring and having a very thin bench to choose from during games means that our on-field team are a lot more fatigued than other clubs.
I wonder if the VAR stoppages are more of a problem rather than the added time they, (partly), create. Maybe teams need to go into a "keep warm" routine if there is a VAR check.

our situation is compounded by having such a shallow bench - just a reality of our financial structure. Nevertheless I thought this was an interesting observation:

"It cost Brighton only £77 million to assemble the starting XI that humbled Crystal Palace 4-1 on Saturday. Tony Bloom, the Brighton owner, and Paul Barber, the chief executive, are simply so much smarter and more experienced than ..... "(was a reference to Chelsea), but still, how much money have we spent in the summer and January and what has been the impact on results?