Linköping physician quits after disagreement over training and injuries

"Linköping are gambling with their players health" was club physician Jan Ekstrand's final verdict as he decided to leave his position with the club. His decision was prompted by the clubs refusal to support his position that Josefine Öqvist should wait with her knee surgery until the swelling has subsided rather than doing it immediately. But he also stated that four serious knee injuries cannot be explained by bad luck. "The club says that they want the medical team to take part in the injury prevention work, but we have no influence at all". Ekstrand said he would have liked to have a say concerning e.g. season planning and choice of turf, but if the club management don't listen to advice, there is no point in staying.
Linköping's management dismissed the allegations, claiming it was preposterous to accuse the club of not caring about their players. "Our cooperation [with the medical team] has been excellent" said general manager Anders Mäki and suggested that Ekstrand left because Josefine Öqvist preferred another physician to perform her knee surgery.
Corren:
"LFC gamblar med spelarnas hälsa", Nu slår LFC tillbaka
Expressen: Storbråk kring Öqvists skada

Josefine Öqvist, who had her knee surgery last Wednesday, also criticized her club "It's really important to find time to rest and not just train and train". She thought that the lack of rest could be to blame for her team mate Anna-Kaisa Rantanen's injury: "She played four full matches in Algarve Cup and was really tired, but still had to play and injured herself". Linköping's head coach Daniel Pettersson commented that it was Rantanen's own choice to play. He also claimed that you really can't train too much, but agreed that it is very important to find the time to recover.
Expressen: Öqvists attack på klubben, "Man kan aldrig träna för mycket"

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