Enrico Castellaci, a former doctor for the Italian national football team, has voiced his concerns on “gianlucadimarzio.com” about the increasing number of injuries in Serie A.
Castellaci voiced his concerns over the excessive number of matches some teams play during a week. He suggested that such schedules might be causing unreasonable strain on players’ joints and muscles.
He said, “Matches are many during the week, too many, for some teams. There’s an excessive overload from a joint and muscular perspective.”
However, the problem isn’t just the physical toll on the players, but also the pressures from the football industry. He highlighted the symbolic submission to national and international bodies against excessive matches, explaining the concern they had raised over players’ health.
“We, as football doctors, have reported the problem of too many matches to national and international bodies. It’s a symbolic complaint because nothing holds up against the economic part, not even health,” added Castellaci.
The former doctor also noted the role of the Italian Footballers’ Association (AIC) in addressing the issue. “We are very connected to the AIC and they have also reported the same problem,” he said.
He criticized the pattern of playing matches every three days. Castellaci argued that this does not leave enough time for rest, leading to the creation of a long bench phenomenon. This refers to creating a rotation of players to avoid using the same players every match.
“Playing every three days is not right there is no time to rest, that’s why the ‘long bench’ was born. Create a rotation of players that would avoid always playing the same ones. Some coaches do it, others prefer to rely on their rotation,” Castellaci concluded.