Stephen Smith, CEO of Kitman Labs, addresses the potential impact of fixture congestion on player injuries on SkyNews, emphasizing that it’s not just about the number of games but also how teams train, prepare for congestion, and manage player rotation.
News
SkyNews: Impact of Growing Fixture Schedule and Congestion on Injury – or Not
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Transcript
Host 1: Now with footballers playing more games than ever across club and international competitions, it’s no surprise there are concerns about the levels of injuries.
Host 2: Yeah. Extra games in the Champions League this season. Club World Cup as well potentially on the way. The Football Intelligence platform, Kitman Labs, have conducted research into this issue.
Stephen: As long as we have the the the right, mechanism to be able to understand what that impact is, I think right now, everybody is trying to speculate and suggest that that is going to cause more risk. But I think, statistically, what we’ve seen, historically, is that the addition of more games hasn’t increased risk. However, what we have seen is that, I think, teams that are not used to periods of congestion generally don’t don’t, rotate their athletes as much. And that actually causes, causes an increase in, in the number of injuries that are occurring.
Stephen: So, it’s not that we’re suggesting, hey. An increase in games is is definitively not going to increase the number of injuries. I think what we’re suggesting is that nobody knows. And our belief is that if we collect the right data and information, we can answer the right questions through research, and then we can improve our policies, and we can answer these questions definitively.
Host 2: Yeah. Extra games in the Champions League this season. Club World Cup as well potentially on the way. The Football Intelligence platform, Kitman Labs, have conducted research into this issue.
Stephen: As long as we have the the the right, mechanism to be able to understand what that impact is, I think right now, everybody is trying to speculate and suggest that that is going to cause more risk. But I think, statistically, what we’ve seen, historically, is that the addition of more games hasn’t increased risk. However, what we have seen is that, I think, teams that are not used to periods of congestion generally don’t don’t, rotate their athletes as much. And that actually causes, causes an increase in, in the number of injuries that are occurring.
Stephen: So, it’s not that we’re suggesting, hey. An increase in games is is definitively not going to increase the number of injuries. I think what we’re suggesting is that nobody knows. And our belief is that if we collect the right data and information, we can answer the right questions through research, and then we can improve our policies, and we can answer these questions definitively.
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