The 'ligament' nightmare and the reason why Vietnamese players are prone to injury

After the 2020 National Super Cup match, midfielder Do Duy Manh was taken to the hospital for an MRI scan. The results showed that the midfielder had suffered a serious injury. According to the announcement of Hanoi FC, Duy Manh completely tore his anterior cruciate ligament and may have to rest until the end of 2020, at least 6-9 months.

In addition to players Phan Van Duc, Dinh Trong, Xuan Truong, Van Thanh, Trong Dai, Tuan Anh, Van Toan also had to rest for a long time because of the nightmare called "ligament". In the case of Pham Xuan Manh, although he did not have ligament damage, he had to rest for a year and had to constantly suffer from recurring injuries.

Do Duy Manh must take a long break from competition. Photo: Zing

With the current situation, the Vietnamese national team's defense is facing a real crisis before the match against Malaysia. With Dinh Trong and Trong Hoang suspended and Duy Manh injured, Coach Park Hang-seo only has two best central defenders left, familiar with the 3-4-3 formation: Que Ngoc Hai and Bui Tien Dung.

Returning to the injury stories of the players, all 8 faces mentioned above have played with high frequency at the club level as well as the Vietnam U23 team and the national team. Especially the players of Hanoi Club who participated in many arenas in 2018.

In addition, coincidentally, they are all between 24 and 25 years old, and do not have much experience in taking care of their feet. Doan Van Hau's case is quite lucky as he is playing for a club in the Netherlands with modern medical conditions.

In addition to the overload in competition, the playing fields of the clubs in V.League are also a difficult problem. Currently, in addition to Thong Nhat, Hang Day, Binh Duong stadiums that are of good quality, other stadiums such as Vinh stadium, Thanh Hoa stadium, Hoa Xuan stadium... are not up to standard. That is part of the reason why SLNA in 2019 had dozens of long-term injuries such as Van Duc, Xuan Manh, Van Hung, Tuan Tai...

SLNA Club is currently facing difficulties in medical work as there is only one doctor who is also a caregiver. Photo: Trung Kien

Not only that, the medical work of the clubs in V.League is still at a semi-professional level. For example, SLNA has only 1 doctor who also works as a caregiver and no physical doctor, no medical specialist. As in the case of Phan Van Duc, Coach Park Hang-seo had to concentrate this player on the national team so that the team's medical team can monitor and help this player recover best.

In the past, not many clubs in V.League were interested in finding a fitness coach or a fitness expert. Ho Chi Minh City Club took the lead in this work. After appointing former fitness coach of Vietnam national team Martin Forkel, the club invited and cooperated with Japanese and Korean therapists to monitor the injury situation of the players.

Recently, Nam Dinh FC invited Malaysian coach Mashiedee Sulaiman, a former student of VFF Technical Director Juergen Gede, to Thien Truong Stadium to join the team's medical team. This is a worthy investment even though Thanh Nam FC is not very financially well-off.

One of the fitness coaches of Ho Chi Minh City Club. Photo: Club

Before the V.League 2020, HAGL Club signed a contract with fitness coach Lee Jin-Nam to improve the physical foundation for Tuan Anh and his teammates. Thanh Hoa Club, after having foreign coach Fabio Lopez, brought in two fitness experts, Serbian coach Alen Tupajic and Dominic Palmer, who used to work at Real Madrid's youth team.

Before Duy Manh was injured, Hanoi FC had invited fitness coach Nicolas Gandini, who will be responsible, along with the team's doctors, for quickly restoring the health of Dinh Trong, Quang Hai and the U23 Vietnam players when they return to the club. However, Duy Manh's ligament tear was also partly due to bad luck.

Coach Park Hang-seo once confided that when he came to Vietnamese football, the physical strength of the players was questionable and there were no records of the players' physical strength or injury history. This forced him to measure and quickly apply medical techniques to facilitate training and competition. Along with that was a strong medical team from Korea such as doctor Choi Ju-young.

While Van Duc and Dinh Trong finished their surgeries, they were allowed to join the national team so that doctors could monitor their injuries instead of returning to their clubs. Photo: Nhu Nguyen

According to former national player Nguyen Manh Dung: “Generally, players get injured due to overload and bad luck. However, in my opinion, the key point is subjectivity. Players play for a long time and at high intensity, so their endurance and bones and joints are worn out.

Because of their concentration and determination, players are often complacent when they have not yet been injured, and do not check their medical condition in all aspects after each season. Therefore, it is necessary to supplement medical nutrition as well as rest to make appropriate adjustments. However, there are not many real sports doctors to advise athletes. That is a pity and a disadvantage."

Pham Xuan Manh injured again, missed V.League for nearly a month

(Baonghean.vn) – The recurrence of an old injury has caused Pham Xuan Manh to be absent from recent training sessions. This has caused the SLNA player to miss the opening match of V.League 2020 as well as the opportunity to go to Malaysia to compete in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.