GERS BOSS IN POP OVER ASTROTURF

Rangers Today, 3pm

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St Johnstone

STEVEN GERRARD has thrown his weight behind PFA Scotland’s call to outlaw plastic pitches and labelled Kilmarnock’s surface the worst he’s ever seen.

The Rangers boss believes the surfaces put livelihoods at stake and joined the players union’s call for a top flight ban to stop his stars being put in jeopardy.

Gerrard slammed Rugby Park’s astroturf – when Jamie Murphy got crocked – as the worst he has experienced anywhere in the world.

The Ibrox manager – whose side welcome Tommy Wright’s (inset) St Johnstone to Ibrox today – said: “All I ask is that owners and governing bodies think about people’s families and bodies.

“I know because I played on them because they’re not safe.

“You think of your family. Not all players are able to say, ‘I’m financially secure. My wife and my family are safe’.

“These are people’s lives, where they’ve got to survive and pay bills and support their families, yet you know that at any given moment you could be wiped out for a full season – and there are no guarantees for being out of football for a full season, how your career is going to pan out.

“I agree with the majority of the players in terms of trying to get them out of the game at the elite level.

“I respect the teams that have put them in place for financial reasons – but for me having been a player and now being a coach, I believe the game would be in a better place if there was no plastic pitches.”

Gerrard played on plastic pitches for Liverpool in Europe and when he starred for LA Galaxy in the MLS.

He reckons the Rugby Park surface where he watched Murphy’s season end back in August is the most dangerous of the lot.

Gerrard said: “I hated them. Your body just reacts differently to them.

“Your joints ache for longer, your muscles are tired for longer. “You can’t play your normal game, that you’ve been coached all your life.”