Lam River Nghe An and crystal feet

This season, striker Ho Tuan Tai has scored 8 goals for the Nghe team after 15 matches and is becoming the best domestic striker of V.League 2019. In the last two matches, Tuan Tai scored 3 goals against Khanh Hoa and Ho Chi Minh City. However, during a training session to prepare for the match against B. Binh Duong, the striker born in 1995 of SLNA suffered a serious injury.

After examining the injury, Tuan Tai was diagnosed with a sprained ankle and will have to rest for at least 1 month. This will cause Tuan Tai to miss the match against Hanoi FC and could easily lose his form in the decisive stage of V.League 2019. Ho Tuan Tai's absence will cause SLNA's coaching staff even more headaches because striker Joel Vinicius's form is very unstable and Michael Olaha is more focused on organizing than scoring.

After Phan Van Duc, Ho Tuan Tai is the latest case to suffer an injury. Photo: Duc Anh

Throughout V.League 2019, SLNA has suffered a series of serious injuries. SLNA's injury list this season includes: Tran Nguyen Manh, Phan Van Duc, Vo Ngoc Duc, Le Van Hung, Pham Xuan Manh, Le The Cuong, Cao Xuan Thang, Nguyen Quang Tinh, Hoang Van Binh, Ho Phuc Tinh... Among them, Van Duc, Xuan Manh, Ngoc Duc, Van Hung, The Cuong are players with long-term injuries.

This clearly caused SLNA to patch up its forces, without stability in the squad. According to statistics, in the past matches, only Tran Nguyen Manh, Damir Memovic, Tran Dinh Hoang, Hoang Van Khanh, Michael Olaha played 23 matches, Khac Ngoc 21 matches. Only midfielder Vo Ngoc Toan played all 24 matches because he was lucky to have healthy legs.

Without rain, Vinh Stadium would be a nightmare for the players. Photo: Duc Anh

One of the first reasons why SLNA faces long-term injuries is because of overload. That is the case of Phan Van Duc and Pham Xuan Manh, both of these players had to go to Singapore for surgery.

In 2018, Phan Van Duc and Pham Xuan Manh had a year of intense competition with 3 fronts: AFC Cup, National Cup, V.League in the club colors. Besides, at the U23 and national team level, there were the U23 Asian Cup, Asian Games, AFF Cup 2018 and Asian Cup 2019.

After surgery, Phan Van Duc and Pham Xuan Manh had not yet regained their form before their injuries recurred. With a playing frequency of about 50-60 matches/year, Vietnamese players will find it difficult to meet the demands without the care of a modern and scientific medical team.

Even a professional club like Hanoi has had many injuries due to overload when players returned from the national team. Along with Phan Van Duc, there are also many other players of the national team who have been having difficulties due to overload during the past time such as Dinh Trong, Trong Hoang, Van Hau...

In addition, another reason why players often get injured and also get injured again comes from the medical work of the clubs in V.League. According to research, only 6/14 teams in V.League have a physical doctor or a real medical specialist.

Vo Ngoc Toan is the only SLNA player to play all 24 matches in V.League 2019. Photo: FBNV

For SLNA, having only one doctor to take care of nearly 30 players is very inconvenient. Not only that, the players themselves are not really professional and conscious of protecting their legs. There are many cases where they are too eager to go on the field when they have not fully recovered, which can easily lead to re-injury.

For SLNA, most of the injuries occurred during training sessions. And the biggest reason is that the Vinh field has seriously degraded. According to SLNA players, the problem does not come from the grass, but the field is too hard and if not careful, it is easy to have problems with the ankle. For players with a history of ligament or meniscus injuries, it becomes even more of a nightmare.

In professional football, an important factor to ensure professional quality is the field surface. Vinh Stadium is always ranked among the worst quality fields in V.League. The National Championship has 14 teams, and nearly 13 coaches when coming to play at Vinh Stadium complain about the field surface problem.

I think it is time for SLNA Club to take urgent action if they want to move towards professionalism, first of all by renovating Vinh Stadium in time for V.League 2020. Partly because of the stadium, the steel legs, which are used to playing with passion of SLNA players, suddenly become crystal legs, which is hard to accept./.

Solving the problem of 'no Phan Van Duc' at SLNA, is the opportunity to be selected for the national team wide open for Ho Tuan Tai?

(Baonghean.vn) - Experts and football fans in Nghe An are hoping that with his excellent performances, the striker born in 1995 will be called up to the Vietnam National Team by Coach Park Hang-seo in the upcoming training session.