Ruaidhri Higgins backs John Russell's calls to outlaw artificial pitches

Russell blasted the state of the Brandywell's plastic pitch after his star player Ellis Chapman was stretchered off last Monday night with an ankle injury - the fourth Sligo player to sustain a serious injury on the controversial surface in the past 18 months!

"Ellis has been unbelievable for us this season and for him to get injured in not even a tackle, it’s hugely frustrating," blasted Russell. “It needs to be highlighted by the managers that it needs to be looked at.

“There’s too much of a correlation between injuries and playing on them and it’s a different game, a different bounce of a ball unless they’re real wet. If we’re trying to grow the game and the Premier Division I think we need to move away from artificial pitches.

Derry defender Ciaran Coll left the stadium wearing a leg brace the same night after his studs got stuck in the surface during the game while it's understood City skipper Patrick McEleney sustained a Plantar fascia tear - an injury to the sole of his foot which commonly occurs on plastic pitches!

Both players are unlikely to feature in the remainder of Derry's league title run-in with pitch-related injuries a growing cause of concern for the Candy Stripes supremo.

Indeed, Higgins shares Russell's concerns from a player-welfare perspective while he also claimed the pitch has proven to be a deterrent when attracting potential new signings to the club. "While our home form has improved this year, the pitch isn't suitable for professional sports," insisted the Brandywell boss.

"We're sick talking about it," he added. "You see in other countries that they're being banned from professional sport and I can see why. “Forget the style of football you want to play, it's about health and players shouldn't be missing out on weeks and months of football because of a pitch. This isn't just me talking about our club; Sligo have picked up a lot of injuries here and Dundalk over the last couple of seasons, so I'm not speaking just on behalf of our club, I just don't feel that they're suitable for professional sport.

"They have their merits in terms of they're durable and you can play loads and loads of football on them but for professional athletes and professional sport and people who do it for a living, and as I said, other countries are banning them, there's a reason for that.

"We might lose one or two players because of the pitch at the end of the season and it hampers you in terms of recruitment as well so we can't just go and sign any players that we want."