The mayhem of deadline day is putting players’ health at risk
Medical teams are at breaking point and can no longer do job properly, says Mike Davison
The huff and puff of transfer deadline day may have ended disappointingly for many teams and fans around the world, but for numerous club doctors and physiotherapists they will be shaking their heads, lamenting the unnecessary stress and risk-taking that is creeping into the game.
It is often easy to forget that the frantic activity in the 24 hours before the window closes is not supposed to be like trading on the London Stock Exchange. Uefa Financial Fair Play, and the deep investment in the academy programme of the Elite Player Performance Plan, were supposed to ensure that these players are not treated as if exchange-listed commodities, and rather as investments in human talent.
Clubs are seemingly incentivised to protect player care, and promote long-term athletic and technical development. The mania, though, is pushing the system to a breaking point where risk-taking is endemic, and there is a feeling in the football medicine community that club owners are often acting subversively. Without explicitly saying it, the money men of the game are often indicating that they do not really feel there is a need for a pre-contractual medical.
Players this year were scattered across the globe due to the international break for World Cup qualifiers and friendlies. This led to many club medical staff shallowsleeping, with the threat of being awoken in the early hours to take flights to destinations such as Porto, Paris and Copenhagen.
As the dominos of deals started to fall, the focus was dynamically shifting to other player targets, which led to desperate calls to find trusted medical contacts and clinics in distant locations to be prepared for lastminute MRI scans and cardiac testing.
Very little of it in the end came to anything, but the potential carried a heavy burden on the shoulders of those who would face the question of “is there anything physically that would stop us signing him ?” When considering the sums at stake. Not only in the transfer fees, but also in the long-term contractual commitment on wages, there seems little logic in giving little time to your trusted advisory team to opine on the health and fitness of the player both for the season ahead and beyond.
It is, though, increasingly difficult to fathom the horizon over which the deal is being conducted. Short-term need could lend itself to taking more risk, but when it is a young player with a big price tag then the stakes are very different.
The multi-day testing, with potential brain and heart scans, extensive hands-on physical assessment, blood testing and physiological-based stress tests, goes out of the window on the last day. Now the medical teams are forced, as you might expect in the Danny Drinkwater deal, to enact a stripped-down and expedited approach in around 45 minutes.
The first thing they will look at is the number of games the player played in the previous three seasons. They will then do quick checks of knees and ankles based upon previous injury records, and try to do more in-depth screening of the hips and groin, where there might be more complex issues. The fundamental request, though, will be that they want to physically examine the player before they are asked the question about whether to sign or not. Relying on other medical practitioners outside the club or on emailed images from scans taken overseas is against best practice.
The medics, though, are being squeezed and are often forced to compromise.
Unchecked, this will lead to increased wastage in spending – and, in a worst-case scenario, put players’ health at risk. At the moment, the status quo is definitely compromising the ability of the medical teams to do their jobs properly. It is also giving a kick in the teeth to those who are looking to develop the talent of the future in the Premier League academies.
Mike Davison, a football medicine specialist, is managing director, Isokinetic London