The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Restricting headers is right call, says Dodds
Caley Thistle manager Billy Dodds reckons restricting heading at training for Scotland’s professional footballers makes sense and insists it won’t impact on their weekly preparations.
Since last week, professional clubs have had to play by the Scottish FA’s rules of not heading the ball at training the day before and the day after matches, and restricting repeated heading to one session per week.
The new guidelines came in after a 2019 Glasgow University study found exfootballers are up to three-and-a-half times more likely to die from brain disease as people of the same age range in the general population.
The SFA already has heading restrictions in place for under-12s and it has now rolled it out within the professional game for men and women.
Inverness head coach Dodds, pictured, insists the changes make sense and he’s all for it.
He said: “We’ve got to take it seriously. We’ve seen so many programmes on it, with Alan Shearer and the like – and there’s a bit of proof at play as well. We’ve got to take heed.
“It might mean a wee bit of adjustment where setpiece work is done on Thursday.
“It won’t make a huge difference on the Sunday because, generally,
that’s a day off. If it means keeping people safe, I don’t think it is that major an adjustment.”
Inverness, meanwhile, stretched their winless league run to seven matches on Saturday when Dundee won 1-0 at the Caledonian Stadium – the first time the Dark Blues had won in the league at the north venue.
Caley Thistle are now nine points behind leaders Ayr United, and eight behind Dundee, with four other clubs ahead of them.
Back-to-back games away to the Championship’s bottom side Hamilton lie in store, starting this Saturday in the fourth round of SPFL Trust Trophy – a game where Inverness plan to field an under-18s side due to injury issues – before a league return one week later.
Striker Billy Mckay nudged the lengthy injury list back up to nine, as he sat it out against Dundee with a calf strain.
Others recovering from injuries of various natures are defenders Robbie Deas and Zak Delaney, midfielders Scott Allardice, Roddy MacGregor and Sean Welsh, winger Tom Walsh, and strikers Shane Sutherland and Austin Samuels.
Dodds recently added former Newcastle United academy player right-back Ryan Barrett to his pool on a short-term deal, with a chance of it becoming more permanent should the free agent impress before January.
The ICT boss insists the club does have the funds ready to move in the winter window but stressed they must be careful to strike the balance with players on their way back from the sidelines.
He said: “In terms of free agents, we’re looking, but it doesn’t mean we will be bringing anyone in.
“We’ll also be looking come the January transfer window to see what we can do.
“But we’re not going to just go out and splash the cash.
“We have to pick carefully and make sure we get the right ones in.
“We feel like we have the right one with Ryan Barrett, but we can’t take two or three bodies in willy-nilly just for the numbers.
“If we can dig in now, win games and pick up points, we will have these important players coming back.
“We don’t want to fill our squad too much when we have these boys coming back, but it is nice to have a good, healthy squad to pick from.”
The past fortnight has seen a welcome return from injury for defender Danny Devine and onloan Hibs winger Dan MacKay.
Although others are not expected to return any time soon, just having two more experienced players within his player pool is a lift for Dodds. He added: “Having players back provides healthy competition for places.
“We’ve been competitive and we’ve been unlucky a couple of games and we should have picked up more points. Every team can say that.
“While we’re down in numbers, we have to dig in. When we get players back in January, we can have a right run. That’s not to say we can’t have a run now too.”