Bournemouth striker Murray unhappy with pitch

LONDON (Reuters) – Bournemouth striker Glenn Murray has blamed modern pitches for the recent crop of serious knee injuries afflicting Premier League players.

Liverpool’s Danny Ings became the latest to suffer an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury on Wednesday, two days after making his international debut for England.

That incident in training occurred the day after Liverpool team mate Joe Gomez also became an ACL victim playing for England’s under-21 side.

Both will be out for several months, like four other players who suffered similar injuries in the past two months.

Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul was also hurt on international duty, playing for the Netherlands away to Kazakhstan when he fell awkwardly.

Before that, no fewer than three Bournemouth players also suffered an ACL injury — two of them on the same day, prompting manager Eddie Howe to come up with a list of potential replacements for when the transfer window opens in January.

Defender Tyrone Mings and winger Max Gradel were taken off in the same match, at home to Leicester City in August, in the former’s case, only six minutes into his club debut.

Four weeks later it was leading goalscorer Callum Wilson’s turn, twisting his knee against Stoke City.

“Can’t believe how common ACLs are becoming, new style pitches have to be to blame,” Murray tweeted on Friday. “If the turf doesn’t give our body’s do! Killing us! #ACL”

Although the quality of modern pitches is generally regarded as being an improvement, some players believe they are too firm, especially in the case of artificial surfaces.

Howe, who knows all too well that the best-laid transfer plans often go awry, is already looking to plug the gaps in his side.

“I think you’ve got to prepare and plan and I’ve got no problem saying that we are trying to do that,” said the manager, who recently extended his contract with the club.

“As we saw in the previous transfer window, you can have the best-laid plans in the world and they can be rocked within three days of the window shutting.

“We’ve got things in mind, but there are so many twists and turns we will wait and see what happens when the window opens.”

Bournemouth are 15th in the league after eight games and travel to the Etihad Stadium to face leaders Manchester City on Saturday.

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru and Steve Tongue in London; Editing by John O’Brien)