Roberto has brushed off suggestions that the Liberty pitch is to blame for the Swans current crop of injuries

Swansea City have seen three players ruled out for the season in recent weeks after injuring themselves at the Liberty Stadium.

Marcos Painter, Ferrie Bodde and Stephen O'Hallorhan have all be stretchered off in the last 6 league games - all with very similair injuries which have ruled them out for the season.

This has led some to speculate that it is the pitch at the Liberty that is at fault but that is not a suggestion that the Swans boss is entertaining.

He told the Western Mail “It’s more a sign of bad luck than anything else

“Hopefully now we have got it all out of the way and we are free of injuries for the rest of the season. We are not at all concerned with relaying the pitch or anything like that.

“We have looked into every incident, how the accident happened, and the pitch wasn’t to blame for any of them.

“It’s just bad luck with the individual challenges. Many worse tackles can go in and everyone is fine, it’s just the way it goes.”

As for the individual injuries, Martinez has studied each incident in detail.

“If you look at the replay of Marcos’ case, the Southampton player is pushing his leg one way and he is moving in the other direction.

“So it’s understandable the ligament gave way.

“Ferrie’s is the worst of the three. He was knocked off balance by the Birmingham player and the whole knee gave way.

“Then, with Stephen O’Halloran, it’s a recurrence of an old injury. He had the same injury a short time ago and we are happy that there is no new damage.

“So we don’t think it has anything to do with the pitch. They are just accidents and it’s very unfortunate.

“It’s a bit weird that they all occurred down the left flank, where the left-back should be. But that’s just football for you.

“It’s not just the three cruciate ligament injuries though. Take Dorus de Vries’ face injury, you don’t get many incidents like that.

“The problems we have are all footballing accidents. But we have a big enough squad to cope and we have to hope our luck has changed now.”

Keiren Blake from Welsh articfical turf manufacturers, The Turf Factory added “Research in American football has shown no real increase in injury problems with the use of third generation synthetic surfaces,” he said.

“I know that is a very different sport from football over here, but it would tend to suggest that such surfaces do not contribute to any more injuries than natural turf.

“Indeed it appears that the chance of injury is lessened on the more advanced synthetic surfaces basically because of the consistency of the surface.

“Turf can be a very inconsistent surface. It absorbs and holds water in different areas whilst draining more quickly from others and this does cause problems.

“It is there to knit the grass together more than anything – to help the grass germinate and, if there is damage to a certain area, to help it repair itself quicker.

“If there are injuries at the Liberty you have to look at what time of year they occur and what the weather conditions are, just like with natural turf.

“You get situations where teams will do their training on an artificial surface and then play a game on natural grass,” he added. That adjustment from one surface to the other does sometimes lead to injuries occurring.”

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