Celtic star Kieran Tierney has revealed the reason for his recent injury was due to one simple reason – being overplayed at left-back.
The 21-year-old has been almost ever present in the Hoops team over the last few years with Celtic lacking competent back-up in his position and asking the boyhood fan to go above and beyond when representing his club.
Add Scotland matches into that equation and you get a situation where the prospect has simply played far games for his age, putting his health at risk.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, Tierney explained:
The reason I got my injury was my loading over the last three seasons. I played 170-odd games. Especially with the demands of my position as well, you are up and down for 90 minutes.
People say ‘You are a professional footballer. you should always be fit and ready’, but eventually it will take its toll.
The last three years just caught up with me. The way I train as well is the exact same way I play. Everything is at 100 per cent and you run at 100 miles an hour.
I probably run between 10 and 11k and up to 1000 metres at high intensity every game. I love it but it’s tough going.
A lot of the time it was Saturday-Wednesday, Saturday-Wednesday, but that’s what you want and I’ve loved every minute of it.
It caught up with me but it’s not an injury that is going to affect me long-term, it just needed a month or two of rest.
The Hoops are on course to play over 60 games this season, as is the case most years due to going deep into domestic competitions and playing a massive gauntlet of European qualifiers.
That is just too much to ask for one player every season without much relief and it’s clear that Celtic must invest in serious competition and back-up for Tierney when the transfer window opens.
Emilio Izaguirre is not good enough anymore to play that role and with his contract up at the end of the season we will be left badly short.
For Tierney’s and Celtic’s case, it’s something that has become a real recruitment priority and the club must act.