Monday evening, the medical assessment of PSG fell. Classic and hopeless. "Thiago Silva, injured Sunday evening during the match against Bordeaux, presents a lesion of the femoral biceps of the right thigh and a recovery estimated at 3 weeks according to the clinical evolution". Since the start of the season, the Parisian captain is the fourteenth player from the capital's club to suffer from an injury to one of the thighs. In total, the medical staff already deplores nineteen more or less serious injuries since last summer since certain players, such as Abdou Diallo, Ander Herrera and others, have been hit twice. If we talk about playing time, these are 67 games missed by the players of the Parisian workforce to which we should add the future packages of Thiago Silva and Herrera.
It is a lot and even too much for a club that prides itself on benefiting from the expertise of the Aspetar clinic in Doha (Qatar), often presented as a place of excellence in sports medicine. For the moment, this collaboration is not enough to stop this infernal spiral which will already deprive Paris of two players for the reception of Dortmund, next March 11, in the Champions League. And yet this assessment does not take into account the other pathologies encountered by Parisian players.
Deficiencies in physical preparation?
This hecatomb underscores the diverging views between the medical department headed by Doctor Christophe Baudot and the technical staff of Thomas Tuchel and his physical trainer Rayner Schrey. In the fall, doctors and managers in the performance sector led by Martin Buchheit pointed to deficiencies in physical preparation. Rather than its dosage, it is its adaptation to football that has been called into question. Some players have also been surprised by the standardization of content, while individualized programs, such as the one followed by Marco Verratti, for example, have given satisfaction. In the fall, adjustments were made to physical preparation, but they did not stop the epidemic.
Certain lesions would even lend a smile, if they did not seriously handicap PSG. Abdou Diallo thus contracted his injury during the scrub of the post-match against Montpellier (5-0) and Ander Herrera was slammed, last Sunday, during the morning muscular awakening preceding the reception of Bordeaux (4-3) . The fatigue at the start of the year, with 16 meetings between January 5 and February 23, is undoubtedly an aggravating factor. But the very late resumption of training, in particular decided to offer a real cut to the many international staff, did not simplify the task of the staff. No more likely than the very late celebrations of the past few weeks, even if the actors of the club are careful not to establish a direct link between the two phenomena.