EPL clubs to vote on allowing five substitutes amid fears of increased injury risk

Premier League clubs will vote on whether to allow the use of five substitutes, as the Bundesliga is, when the English season resumes.

Dortmund coach Lucien Favre has not hesitated to take advantage of the opportunity to use extra substitutes since the restart of the Bundesliga. Picture: AFP

Premier League clubs will vote on whether to use five substitutes when the season resumes. The clubs agreed on Wednesday to intensify training, moving to stage two of Project Restart and close-contact work, and the option of five substitutes has been offered by FIFA to reduce the potential risk of players suffering muscle injuries late in games.

Depending on the depth of quality in their squads, clubs have mixed views on a more extensive deployment of reserves. There is also the concern of its impact on the spectacle, although FIFA insists that managers are allowed only three opportunities to bring the five on.

In the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund’s coach, Lucien Favre, has been a devoted disciple of the increased substitutes’ rule, using four from the bench against Schalke, five against Wolfsburg and five during Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to Bayern Munich. Bayern have drawn on the new protocol only once, bringing on four players against Eintracht Frankfurt.

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Key Bayern performers such as Robert Lewandowski, who has played every second of Bayern’s three games, and Thomas Muller, who has missed only 60 seconds, are leading the charge towards the title. When Bayern do secure the trophy, and they are seven points clear with six games to play, they can rest some of their stars.

There seemed little in the exertions of Lewandowski and especially the tireless Muller late on against Dortmund to signal concern over injuries. But there was a warning in the sad sight of Dortmund’s Erling Haaland sitting on the pitch at Signal Iduna Park, his face a picture of frustration, knowing his injured knee precluded further involvement against Bayern Munich. It was minor, according to Dortmund, but a reminder. Players are flesh and bone, muscles and sinew, thoroughbreds susceptible to falling lame.

The English are watching closely, and when they start to play, the model of seven weekends plus two midweek rounds of games (as opposed to six plus three) looks a more rational schedule.

It has been worth reading the words of Luke Anthony, a physiotherapist who has worked with Watford, Reading and Norwich City, latterly as an injury prevention specialist, and now clinical director at GoPerform, a sports injury and human performance centre in Reading.

“All indications are that there will be a spike of injuries on resumption of training and playing,” Anthony wrote. “In the Bundesliga, the match injury rate for the 2019-20 season prior to the lockdown was 0.27 injuries per game. In the first round of matches back, this figure rose to 0.88.

“Muscle injuries will be the main risk. The hamstring and quadriceps muscles are exposed to injury with maximal sprinting, repeated high-speed running and high-velocity ball striking. Small area drills commonly used in training sessions can be highly intensive, however will not necessarily expose these muscle groups to the specific loads of match play. This goes some way in explaining the tenfold injury increase in match time compared to training.

“It’s important to remember players normally have the opportunity to play in six to seven pre-season fixtures. (Now) players will be in a position where they are using competitive fixtures to regain their fitness.”

The Premier League has been on hold since March 13 but is moving towards a return. People accept England’s elite division must return for sporting and financial reasons, because the safety concerns are being addressed and other industries are slowly reopening, despite the pandemic’s grip on society being far from loosened.

The issue is how much pre-activation work players can do properly without sustained recourse to the gym, and how full the massages will be before and after training from staff in full PPE. Some players prefer physios to strap their ankles before games, and will have to learn to do that themselves. And then come the rigours of match days, when the option of five substitutes surely makes medical sense.

Club managers have been told that the season will be completed in as little as six weeks if the plans for its resumption remain on track.

With the scheduled start date of June 12 now off the table, the weekend of June 20-21 looks the earliest possible return to competitive action. If that is when the Premier League resumes, matches will be played over seven weekends, with two sets of midweek fixtures.

If the start is delayed until the following weekend, the games will be played over six weekends with three sets of midweek fixtures. Most clubs have nine fixtures remaining and each game is to be given its own live television slot.

Barring further delays, the season is due to be completed on August 2, with the FA Cup final the following Saturday. The quarter-finals and semi-finals would be played in midweek slots.

The managers were told that it was crucial to end the season by early August to give players another break before the start of the new campaign and to allow enough time for UEFA to complete the Champions League and Europa League competitions.

THE TIMES