Is there any reason why we are having so many injuries this year?

I can't remember a year when we have had so many injuries and yet it isn't even December. I know the players prohibited team doctor from dressing room? Is that move in any way related to the injuries? I know several of the injuries are muscle related. Is there a fitness problem? Do we even have a fitness coach anymore? Last one that I heard of was that loudmouth sidekick of Mourinho.

I know these injuries are not an excuse for the team play, but there has been an incredible amount of injuries (and yes several of them came while players were on International duty), but is there a reason why we are getting so many?

We had same problem under Benitez..

I think it is due to a change in the training regimen. They even get injured with their NTs. Changing from Carlo's relaxed trainings to Rafa's battles can make it difficult to adjust at the start

Thigh injuries have become super common everywhere in all sports tbh... the bigger your muscles get, the more chance you have of straining them. Footballers also play a lot more competitive football nowadays. Basically only get 6 weeks off a year.

Robespierre wrote:We had same problem under Benitez..

I think it's this^

I think it's a way too easy to put the blame on Benitez. Several of our injuries have come from International duties so Benitez can't be at fault for that.

Sports has mentioned the demands of modern futbol for almost 11 months of the year taking it's toil, but these conditions have been in place for several years now. Again I have the impression that the amount of injuries this season (and that's only 3 months) is far greater than ever before.

It could be the workouts by Benitez vs Carlo or Mourinho?
It could be on the fitness coach if we have one or maybe it's the lack of one?
And is it in any way related to the player banned doctor?

I know in some sports, coaches deliberately work on team fitness throughout the season as a strategy to overcoming competition. It sure seems that there is no emphasis on this and I've even heard Benitez say a lot of these injuries are just muscular as if to say no big deal and nothing he can do about it???

we had similar crisis with injuries in the 08/09 season. when we had to play ramos at left back in the clasico, we started a midfielder from the castilla (can't remember his name), ruud, sneijder, mahmoudu, had lengthy lay offs, and robben had his injuries every now and again. imo it could be down to an array of things including players' lifestyle

i say so because, we had injury issues with carlo too, and as a result, florentino was keen on ancelotti getting rid of his technical staff. now we also have issues under rafa. and most of these injuries don't come from being tackled, they just happen.

i'm not sure its limited to changes in coaching. madrid  has changed coaches every year for decades now, and so too have other clubs. injuries can be anything, players' lifestyle, diet, coaching, personal training; i think a club like real madrid has always looked to have a competent staff, sometimes no matter how competent, players who are injury prone and those with poor diet and lifestyle choices will get hurt. in 08/09 we got some trainer or medical guy from manchester utd, who was supposed to be among the top in the business and loved by ferguson, he came to madrid and at one point almost the whole squad was rocked by injuries here and there, with three guys missing out on most of the season, and going into the next season

the fact that someone like cristiano hardly gets hurt, and we know how stringent he is with fitness and taking care of his health, makes me feel this isn't down primarily to coaching as well. i understand players are different, in terms of body-type, health and mental background, body composition (blood and chemical differences) etc. but if all the guys had his work ethic from a fitness standpoint, maybe injuries en masse could be reduced. if cristiano showed the same dedication to fitness to pressuring defenders, maybe we could also be better from a discipline standpoint

There is no comparison of this year's injury list to 08/09 nor to Carlo's two years here. We've had 9 players out for extended time in only 3 months of play. In the year's you are referring to we didn't have that many players out in the entire season. Most of those injuries were to key players, without suitable backups on squad and most of those injuries we not muscle related as at least half of this year's injuries were.

You are right that there were fitness issues under Carlo but that is explained with his overuse of players, not using his squad at all. This year everyone except Denis has played and you can hardly say anyone would be overly played in only 3 months of play.

In other words there definitely is something different this year. I suspect that Benitez' training may have something to do about it, but I wonder if there is a fitness coach on staff and what he is doing about it. Something is clearly (IMO) missing here.

it might be due to rafa's training, but its hard to narrow that down especially as we're looking at a 3month time period. if everyone returns and hopefully we don't sustain more injuries, will it still be down to training? imo we've always had fitness issues, maybe not like these three months, but they've been there. and guys got injured not just now, but starting after the first couple of games....even with mou we had fatigue and injury issues too, especially in his last and first year

there are fitness coaches and physios, and i'm sure a club like madrid employs the best. but i also  feel it could be a lifestyle issue. rafa isn't in a position to implement strict dietary and lifestyle plans; these players will consider him a dictator and a hypocrite. but i look at nacho (who obviously doesn't get to play much), but i read somewhere that he has only been injured once his whole career (at junior level, castilla, professional),  maintains a healthy lifestyle and takes care of himself.

cristiano gets injured, but look at the number of consecutive games and minutes he plays. i don't want to sound like i know what players do in their personal lives, but sometimes i get the feeling this could be down not just to training regimes but lifestyle. hell, carlo had some players who weren't even playing but were picking up injuries. i can excuse ramos, cos he injured himself, and we saw him get hurt when he fell. but these other injuries can hardly be narrowed down to one thing no matter how we slice it, especially since we don't get to see rafa's training regiments everyday

I think it's all playing a role tbh. Rafa's training is no joke, so it's building strain on the players bodies. Combined with the tough schedule AND lets not forget Jesus Olmo, plus the fact we lost so many senior physios last year (because of Olmo) and you have the perfect concoction for injuries. It all leads back to Perez. His coach, his doctor.

Carvajal out for a month. Now, our fullbacks are Danilo and Arbeloa

The Demon of Carthage wrote:Carvajal out for a month. Now, our fullbacks are Danilo and Arbeloa

Nacho?

He'll be used too, but as a CB given the fact that both Ramos and Varane are out.

Danilo-Pepe-Nacho-Arbeloa

Although I never miss a chance to trash Arbeloa because he is a garbage defender and has lost his utility years ago, he can still manage as a LB.

As a RB he thinks he can attack and that is laughable.

Injure Rafa please