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Dorking’s Marc White expresses concerns with artificial pitches following injuries

Dorking’s Marc White has been praised as he expresses concerns with artificial pitches following injuries suffered to players.

He spoke to the club’s media following his side’s 0-0 draw at home to Eastleigh on the weekend, but is now ‘smelling the coffee’ with wanting to change up the pitch.

His side currently sit 22nd in the National League table with 5 points from 7 games played, and of those, they have lost 4, drew 2 and won once.

Interviewer: “We obviously lost Luke Moore through the course of the first half and George Franklin was struggling towards the end of the second half as well how are we looking on the on the injury front and the Personnel looking ahead.”

White said: “Should rip these pitches up, mate. And I’ve always been a big fan of them, mate, but you know, you need to smell the coffee with these pitches, mate.

“Their bloke, their bloke goes down and I straightaway, I think, here we go, artificial pitch injury.

“…foot goes down. Mooro, same thing. He’d be out four or five weeks. We’ve had, I think, four ACLs on this pitch in five years.

“Pro teams won’t let teams play on these pitches. I think these pitches have a belonging and that’s in a leisure centre or youth teams or clubs, they’re really important for participation, for senior elite sport, mate.

“The amount of injuries on these pitches, mate, I’m really starting to smell the coffee.

“And er it’s not good enough, they charge a fortune, right, they they do the old Del Boy sat on the roof like a roofer again going need more rubber this more that more that you know this is a quality Pro pitch you need to dump this on it’s going to cost you 20 grand this that oh the bounce the roll let me tell you they have not got a clue what a good pitch like this is like they ain’t got a clue and they’re not safe and that is how I see it because I’m fed up with losing boys for months at a time on these pictures so um hopefully um and obviously you know that’s not m saying we’ve got to rip our pitches it’s not our choice but I just feel like for youth participation you know where the movements are lower key the game is slower etc they’re completely fine but for this Elite level mate then they’re not safe mate so disappointed to lose more though big speech about 3G pitches”

This is how Twitter users reacted as Dorking’s Marc White expresses concerns with artificial pitches following injuries…

@McEwen1171: Nothing wrong with the pitches. Players wearing the incorrect boots. Firm ground boots shouldn’t be worn on artificial pitches

@spirestats: It’s not even just injuries, the ball moves differently across the surface so it gives the home team an unfair advantage

@Dec_Martin7: Despise playing on astro; how can we have a completely different texture of pitch that makes the ball react differently to the usual type of pitch? The people trying to argue that they’re fine are the people that have never played on it regularly. It’s nothing but a money maker.

@NonleagueRdup: More injuries on grass pitches than 3G/4g pitches team I worked for had 3G surface and in one season had 3 ACL ‘s but all on grass how many of these teams train on 3G/4G

@MattCrivelli: We (Yeovil) have 2 or 3 players who can’t/won’t play on artificial pitches

@BakerTeee: never deeped it but they’re actually terrible. MCL on 4G, Snapped ankle on 3G. Used to think these pitches were the future 😂

@LeeBarney09: Facts. Fractured my ankle on one 3G. Did my acl on another 3G. They’re a joke

@thomasbown4: Thought the same after watching this. Be interesting to see if he rips it up at the end of the season and lays grass.

@AndrewM21863757: Brings up some really interesting points about 3G pitches and use in elite sport that is coming out more and more

@Itsallwrighty: Get rid of these!

@dangagey9: 4G pitches the worst things ever for knee injuries

@neil71grant: 💯 good to see and hear it’s time to consider welfare and long term effects for the players #freshcutgrassalldaylong

@RodJones1960: Plenty of reports showing no more injuries on artificial grass than normal grass. Plus many teams would struggle to survive without the extra revenue they’re able to generate from artificial pitch hire.

@readingrebel: ‘Always been a fan of 3G’ so you get a few injuries and suddenly they are the problem? There are of course different qualities of 3G from the cheap to the top quality ones. We’ve had a top quality 3G in place for over 6 seasons and never had a problem.

@Linesy8: Afraid to say, he’s bang on…with the amount of 4G pitches now being used it is more important than ever to get your injury protection in place 🙌🏼 ESPECIALLY if you are working a job alongside playing 🙏🏼🧡 Lads & Ladies, get in touch and I can help ⚽️☂️

@TheShoeArmy1897: Fully agree. I get why it’s important at some level, to have as many pitches available all year round. Provides stable income for some clubs. But more funding/research is needed into alternatives and the long term affect of them and ultimately phase them out IMO

@Tonyh53T: Absolutely spot on ! These pitches are usually installed for commercial gain as a priority, which is fine, but they play no part in improving football whatsoever and certain injuries are caused by them which is an indisputable fact.

@toptargets: I do get Marc’s points but tend to think they’ve just been unlucky. We went the whole of last season with zero injuries at Billericay with the help of S&C etc. Maybe its the type of 3g because guessing they arent all the same.

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