Arsenal manager Unai Emery has been slammed by the England futsal physio for taking a “risk” by over-playing Rob Holding before his season-ending injury.
The Premier League club announced today on their official Twitter account that Holding has ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament of his knee and will be out for up to nine months.
Charlie Goodchild, who is the lead physio for the England futsal team, claimed on his personal Twitter account today that “the risk was definitely not worth it” after warning 24 hours earlier that Emery had gambled by starting the defender for the third game in six days in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw at Manchester United.
He added there is a “serious lesson to be learnt here” for Arsenal and others “on load managing players”.
https://twitter.com/physio_charlie/status/1071019302642421761
OPINION
Emery has been rightly hailed for his transformation of the Arsenal team en route to their 20-match unbeaten run that has revitalised the club and their supporters following several years of gloom. But it is his application of injury-prevention methods that have drawn the ire of Goodchild, a specialist in his field. Holding was the only Arsenal outfield player named in the starting XI for the fixtures against Vorskla Poltava, Tottenham and United, a gamble that has badly backfired. There was only two days of rest for the 23-year-old between each fixture and he has paid the price with a shattering injury that ends his hopes of playing again this season and came at a time when he was playing the best football of his career. While managers tend to fog the issue over injury-prevention by claiming only muscle or tissue injuries are due to over-playing or training, that is nonsense. The brain and nervous system reacts slower when the body is fatigued, and that is when injuries such as Holding’s ACL tear occur. Emery should have known far better.