Fernando as well, giving notice in latest interviews he´s recovering from an ankle injury and its still bothering but will need to see how he recovers. As he does want to play the Osasuna game, which is good. Same with Papu, play for your country is a big honor. But sometimes I feel we need to protect our players a bit better. Same like we did with Navas, the way he had to play at a certain point, only could lead to injuries, you could basically see the injuries add up to him, and yes to the point, where he couldn´t play anymore. Really not surprising. Not sure who mentioned about the change in medical staff of recent past either but these structural changes I believe can impact the players and their physical state in many ways and could be part of the problem and all the injuries adding up. I know at the same time in the life of a footballer you are hardly ever 100%. There are always small things that ache or bother. And there are differences within players as well, how they take care of body and muscles, which Ronaldo for example does to the extreme to which he seldom missed a match. But there is definitely a medical side to this, or intensity in the training, the full schedule, big gap with canteranos but also us overforcing with the risk of making it worse. Which for now seems to have passed by so far, but we just have to be carefull.
Absolutely. I met Shefki Kuqi through a friend as he was on vacation in his hometown, and he told us that he played with a persistent back injury for an entire season (during his time in England). The only solution were injections/painkillers before the matches and more rigorous training sessions.
I also know from a lot of pro footballers that I’ve spoken to that if they didn’t push through a minor injury, they would only play like 10-15 matches in the season at most. I’ve only played up to junior level football (with training sessions) and senior semi-pro football and minifootball without training sessions and it is quite different as you have more time to recover - but with constant training and physical activities it is almost impossible not to have at least a knock that will bug you throughout the match, but the players are used to it.
This also raises another topic for professional sports especially football - the use of NSAID’s and the increased risk of heart problems. Plus there’s some reports circulating that NSAID’s do not go well with the covid vaccine, in some cases of course.
At the end of the day, the main idea is to rest and listen to your body, especially when you have an injury like Papu’s, it’s always a thumbs up to rest for at least a week or so and engage only in light activity. I’m pretty sure the medical team of Argentina NT warned him and advised him not to play, but just as the Navas case last season, he didn’t listen and went on anyway. That’s never good.
Nice story man. I do remember him from England, and I picked him up in some of my careermodes he was one of the rare lesser known players who they gave his “real face” as i would call it, even in times before they did full face scans in some of the early fifas. Also his name combined with his nationality intrigued me, im not kidding. Especially when I wanted to save and rebuild Fulham.
But yeh these things can´t be taken lightly, from both sides the players and the club. Bad treatment is careerchanging (ending even) stuff…
Maybe in Kuqis case the way he celebrates wasn´t helping his body either 
why does my back hurt, well shefki… 
Very strange player when he was at Palace. Never known someone go from such a villain (he was absolute crap and then flipped off the Palace supporters), to quite a bit of a hero towards the end. I think a lot of people appreciated the fact he worked his arse off and wanted to make up for being a bit of a dickhead previously.
I was also at his Palace debut away at Norwich (who he despises by the way!) when he scored a 92nd minute winner, then ran over and done the Swan Dive in front of us. 
Y’all keep @sterusebn in your thoughts; his dumbass is at the USMNT game that’s taking place in Minnesota…-17 C Minnesota
Corrrr them Hondurans must have been frozen. 
I was just thinking that - they must’ve prayed for the match to end asap, just like the Tunisia - Mali match ref that blew the FT whistle in the 85th min. Later on he said that it was God’s will because he was about to pass out due to the heat.
This NT break seemed like a helluva long one to me. I’m already dreading the March break as I’m very much excited for the club action this time around.
@ChrisLail @sterusebn - have the USMNT ever played in Minnesota or in similar conditions or is this the first time?
Seems there’s been some pretty scathing comments about allowing that game to go ahead in Minnesota last night.
Oh, it definitely shouldn’t have been played in Minnesota outdoors in February, but that didn’t stop us from having a good time!
Didn’t stop crazy people from taking their shirts off haha.
First time I recall us playing in Minnesota in the winter. We have had the crazy snow game in Colorado a few years ago.
There was zero stoppage time and those poor refs were from Jamaica.
congrats @Edinho and our other Canadians for their victory last night. Killing it in the group.
I used to be that guy at sports events. Then I got older and wiser. I also seem to have lost my physique through the years. It’s best for everyone involved if I keep my shirt on these days lol
There is at least one more, but I can’t remember who it is. I’ll see if I can find him.
Can’t even warm up with a beer. haha