THERE is no compelling scientific evidence that suggests footballers are at increased risk of suffering serious injuries on artificial surfaces, it was revealed by one of Scotland’s leading knee specialists yesterday.

But studies have shown football that clubs can more than halve the chances of their players being sidelined on astroturf by altering their pre-match warm-up routine and embracing the FIFA 11+ programme, the expert told.

Rangers yesterday confirmed their winger Jamie Murphy has been ruled out for the remainder of the season after sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in the Betfred Cup game against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on Sunday.

Both Steven Gerrard, the Ibrox club’s manager, and James Tavernier, their captain, have suggested the synthetic pitch at the Ayrshire ground was responsible.

And the SPFL have come under increased pressure to review their long-standing policy on their member clubs having artificial surfaces in the wake of the Murphy incident.

However, Jon Dearing, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon who is based at Ross Hall Hospital in Glasgow, stressed that extensive medical research has shown that players are just as likely to suffer serious knee injuries playing on grass.

Dearing, who one of only two surgeons in the country who holds a specialist qualification in sports and exercise medicine, explained that clubs can significantly reduce the risk of injury on astroturf by tailoring their pre-match warm-ups.

“There is no good evidence that with the current 3G pitches that there is any increased risk of injury,” he said.

“There are number of studies which have looked at whether there is an increased risk of cruciate ligament injuries, ankle injuries and all injuries associated with artificial pitches. Overall, there is no good evidence that, with normal football boots versus blades, artificial pitches increase risk of lower limb injury.

“The footwear the player wears can be an influence. It used to be said that blades increase torsion of the knee and certainly in the older pitches that was true. But there isn’t such strong evidence that that is still the case with the new 3G pitches.”

Dearing added: “People draw an association rather than causation. You see a professional athlete getting injured on an artificial surface and then, as was the case with Steven Gerrard, somebody says it is because of the pitch.

“ Well, no, these things just happen. There are lots and lots of professional football and rugby players who get cruciate ligament injuries and they aren’t playing on artificial turf.

“Some studies have shown that if you are playing on a slightly hard uneven surface, as you would, on the pitches down in England at the moment, that is a greater risk than artificial pitches. It isn’t cut and dried.”

Dearing feels more football clubs in Scotland should be following the lead of their rugby counterparts and taking simple measures to prevent players from suffering serious injuries.

“Clubs should be doing to mitigate against lower limb injury,” he said. “For the last five or six years there has been really, really strong evidence that doing specific warm-up drills reduces lower limb injury by between 30 and 60 per cent.

“FIFA have something called the FIFA 11+ drill. As far back as 10 years ago, there was a programme in America called PEP, Preventing Injury and Enhance Performance.

“Rugby players have really taken this on board. The SRU now has a programme based on that. It is not really that clear how well that has been taken up by footballers. But I see a lot of lower league and junior players who just don’t do this.

“We don’t look after our athletes. In Scotland we can’t afford to haemorrhage talent at a young age. There are steps which can be taken to reduce the risk of lower limb injury. If you are doing that then it doesn’t matter what surface you are playing on.

“The difficulty is with people listening. Often older managers are of the opinion that ‘we have always done it like this’. So you say ‘but you’ve always had injuries’.

“The reason FIFA push this is if you have a player who is on £50,000 a week and he is out for a year that is a lot of money to be spending on somebody who isn’t doing anything. If you can reduce the risk of that happening by a third to two thirds that is a lot of money to be saved.”

Dearing admitted that artificial surfaces had been shown to increase ankle strains - which in turn can lead to serious knee injuries - but stressed that a bespoke warm-up can prevent that.

“The ACL injury that Michael Owen suffered at the 2006 World Cup was a nothing incident. He just kind of folded. But if you look back you will see that a minute or so earlier he had just gone over on his ankle. His balance was impaired and he suffered a failure as he was trying to push off.

“But the likelihood of suffering an ankle injury is also reduced by proper conditioning and the warm-up. All lower limbs injuries are reduced by doing that. So you can mitigate against them.”