The doctor of the national rhythmic gymnastics team and the youth national football team - Mariyan Dobrev, gave an interview to Gong.bg. He talked about the Olympics in Paris, the busy calendar in football, sports injuries and medicine in Bulgaria. He shared why players are getting injured more and more often, why the recovery time from torn cruciate ligaments is increasing and what are the specifics of recovery.
We are at the end of the year. What is your assessment of the past 2024?
- From the outside, as someone who helps these people who participated in the Olympics, I think the year was successful. Especially for rhythmic gymnastics. For the first time in many years we have a silver medal, fourth place is not bad for the ensemble. For rhythmic gymnastics, the year is great and I am glad to be part of this. It is a pride to be part of a team that works professionally in all areas, hopefully in mine, for which I am responsible.
You are a person who constantly wants to learn, you follow trends. What did you learn in Paris?
- I was quite impressed by the organization. The Olympic Village was quite interesting, quite nicely arranged. The energy inside itself is very special. You are among the best athletes in the world and this is a special feeling. From my point of view, you see the medics from other headquarters and countries, you can talk about them. I can say that we are not at all behind from a medical and rehabilitation point of view. I even think that we are following a modern trend. That impressed me and I am pleased.
And speaking of the Olympics, let me say about Boryana Kalein - I have never seen such an athlete. She distances herself from pressure, from everything. She went and got hers focused. I was impressed. This is an example not only for sports, but also for various professions. It was nice and impressive to be a part of this thing.
There are matches with the youth national team coming up. How is the situation there?
- Everything is relatively fine there. Everything is going well. We are angry that we could not qualify, because we had a great chance. It was difficult, because all the teams are now very even. This will be the first meeting of the new cycle.
We are in another break for national team matches. Again, many players got injured and dropped out of the squads. Many of them are already talking about the busy calendar and the fact that the number of matches should be reduced. What is your opinion about the sports calendar?
- The calendar is scandalously busy. The number of matches should be reduced, but this does not depend on the federations, but on the highest place. It is very difficult to keep athletes healthy and in absolute condition with such a workload, especially in football. They cannot last if they continue like this. The injuries that occur in big teams, where everything is at a high level, show this. These injuries are from fatigue of the muscle, of the body. They are repeated and happen often, even much more often than before.
The big clubs have 30 players, but they are not enough with this calendar. The only team that has a sufficient number of players is Chelsea. This is not good, because you cannot maintain such a team, regardless of the profession. It is logical to keep 40 players and be able to replace them if they get injured. This is completely absurd, but that is how it happens. At some point, the body has difficulty with such a load. We are talking about overloading for three days, which is a lot.
How would a Bulgarian club, excluding Ludogorets to some extent, cope with such a calendar?
- From my point of view, Ludogorets is coping. They have the ability of the medical team. They also have the base. Apart from Razgrad, can we talk about bases anywhere else? Not yet. Now we see that CSKA is doing something, Levski probably wants to do something too. Botev Plovdiv has it. These are things that I am watching from the sidelines and I don't know what will happen in the future.
How is the medical part viewed in Bulgarian sports, since there was a president before who claimed that he didn't need a doctor in the team?
- A little more attention should be paid to the medical part, to the medical team, to the physiotherapy team. These teams are too small everywhere. Sometimes it is not understood in a football club or federation, not to mention the one I work in, where everything is fine, that if an athlete is healthy and feels good, he will do his job. Some small pains are sometimes transient and adaptive situations. If an athlete does not know what is wrong with him and cannot rely on the medical part, he cannot do his job well. Accordingly, he is afraid to do it and starts looking for answers everywhere, except in his club or federation. Thus, his game and perseverance begin to change. When you do not pay enough attention, you rely on luck that the athlete will accept this and play until he falls apart. No football player or athlete wants this for themselves, they want to be calm. They want to have a headquarters that, if something happens, will immediately react, will immediately make a diagnosis. If these things are not paid attention to, it happens that athletes give up. Despite these conditions, our athletes achieve results. You can't go around the whole of Bulgaria to answer what's wrong with you. Such things happen because the medical part is not developed. This needs to change, in my opinion. The attitude towards the medical and rehabilitation part corresponds to the attitude towards the athletes.
What should a base have in the medical part in order to be able to do an adequate job?
- There are many things. Mostly quality people and a sufficient number of them to do their job. I think that Ludogorets is the only place in Bulgaria where you can count on instant reactions and top-level treatment. I don't want to offend other places, but this is what I have seen. In other places, the team is too small and not enough attention is paid.
You are known for operating, dealing with sports injuries, with cartilage. I will use this to ask you about some injuries to football players that have happened recently. A recent example is Eder Militao from Real Madrid. He tore cruciate ligaments and a meniscus in the other leg. Is it possible to return to the same level after two such injuries in a short period of time?
- It is possible, and in my opinion, you would even insult the athlete if you told him that he would not be able to. If he is sufficiently injured and everything goes well, he will return. That is why treatments are also done to get him back to level. He has bad luck. I do not know if the loads are the reason or the situation is like that.
Another example from Real Madrid is David Alaba. He hasn't played for almost a year.
- He has an anterior cruciate ligament, and then it was found that the cartilage was also damaged. This is a problem with the cartilage, and because of this, the recovery time from the anterior cruciate ligament is increased. Sometimes when this ligament is injured, the cartilage is also injured. We expect that up to nine months to recover from the anterior cruciate ligament is enough, but the cartilage is the foam of the joint and needs to be able to bear weight. There is now a Barcelona player - Marc Bernal, he was given 12 months to recover. Everyone wonders how come 12 months - there is a problem with the cartilage. Enough time is given so that you don't panic, go around and get pointless injections. You give it time, the muscle will return, the ability to step will return, there is no need to bother. He may need additional things, but he is given the time he really needs to recover.
Footballers have increasingly started to tear cruciate ligaments. What do you attribute this to?
- This is from overloading the muscles, the body. In big teams, the load is superhuman and at some point, if every system in the body is not working normally, such structures in the body "take it". The most often injured are the knee and ankle. That's why it happens so often lately - from overload. Of course, there are also those who are from collisions.
In football, younger and younger players are starting to get more and more playing time. An example is Barcelona. How does this busy calendar affect them and is it a prerequisite for them to get injuries in the future?
- The busy calendar will affect them if you allow yourself to let them play in all the matches like the older ones. There is an average age for a football player, younger and older. The two extremes should have more limited matches. An example was Lamine Yamal with the national team. He had an injury that they were not sure about whether he could play or not. He could have, but they pulled him and everyone in Spain agreed not to play. It is better for him to rest and recover properly, because most likely it was some kind of problem from overload. With a teenager, attention should be paid to overload, because at 17-18 they are still like that. In a middle-aged athlete, the pain from overload is compensated by other parts of the body, passes and will not have consequences. In adolescents and older athletes, it may have an impact in the future. Therefore, one must be very careful with the workload of these people.
Can an example of how not to proceed with a young football player be Pedri from Barcelona? He played about 60 games in one season - European, Olympics, and then a cycle of injuries began.
- This proves the things I was talking about. Overwork leads to future problems and one must be careful. Attention has already begun to be paid, because there have been many young football players, especially in Barcelona. There they certainly know what to do. At the first sign of overload, you take the player away, restore him and then bring him back.