Adelaide United coach Marco Kurz feared for his players safety at the club’s Playford training centre

Adelaide United coach Marco Kurz has suggested the club use Hindmarsh Stadium for regular training sessions until the end of the season.

Adelaide United training at Playford training centre. Action pics of Coach Marco Kurz. 3 January 2019. (AAP Image/Dean Martin)

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Adelaide United coach Marco Kurz has slammed the poor state of the club’s Playford training grounds vowing never to return this season saying he fears for the safety of his players.

As revealed in The Advertiser Adelaide dumped its home training venue on Wednesday before Kurz led his A-League squad’s debut session at the Adelaide City Park, Oakden.

“We must find a pitch for the rest of the season I think we cannot go back to Playford,’’ Kurz said on Thursday after the Reds trained at Hindmarsh before facing Perth Glory on Friday at home.

“The reason for the training at Adelaide City Park was the terrible conditions of the pitches at Playford.

“The surfaces are too dangerous to play on.

“I don’t want to risk injuries and we had last season injuries and the reason was the terrible pitch.

“To avoid problems in the future, the club needs to find a solution.

“For me it’s a big problem.

United head coach Marco Kurz speaks to the media at Coopers stadium on Thursday. Picture: AAP Image/David Mariuz

“We must train on a good surface and you must prepare the team as well you can and that’s now also a part of the club to find a good pitch.

“Maybe for me the best solution is to train two or three times (a week) at Coopers.

“We have only three (home) games (remaining) at Coopers.”

Kurz said Adelaide’s injury list last season where the club had 17 players out of action at various times prompted concern.

Kurz said the Playford pitches perhaps contributed to soft tissue injuries.

United this season has seen 10 players go down with 11 injuries.

“The greenkeeper is not the problem he works hard,’’ Kurz said.

“We had the same problems last season with the pitch, some areas are really soft around the sprinklers and that’s dangerous for the players, very, very dangerous, I cannot train on it.

“That was one point after the last season to fix it up but not only to fix the grass but to fix the water system.

“Now we are at the same position as last season.

“We had last season long term injuries and the reason was the pitch.”

A spokesman for the City of Playford said the council would replace the watering system during the A-League off season.

“While the AUFC (Adelaide United) manages day-to-day maintenance of the training centre, the irrigation system is a council asset,’’ he said.

“It is coming to the end of its life-cycle and we have already planned, in consultation with the AUFC, to replace the entire system in the off-season as part of our asset-management program, which operates across the entire council.
“The AUFC pays full commercial rates to access this facility and we have a good relationship with the club and anticipate that this will continue.”

Adelaide United officially moved into the new $700,000 training centre at Ridley Reserve Elizabeth on September 17, 2015.

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