Soccer's incredible shrinking shin guards could be a dangerous problem

"As a club, you can simply say: we require our players to wear proper shin guards."

Watch any top-level fixture this season and you're likely to see players with socks rolled down almost to their ankles -- Everton's Jack Grealish and Tyler Dibling wear them low, covering tiny shin pads. Others have their socks just below the knee, but still sport shin pads half the size of an iPhone, as shown by Burnley midfielder Marcus Edwards during a game against West Ham in February. Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka has spoken this season about his preference for tiny shin pads -- "I'm a fan of them, I don't like big shin pads" -- though Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk harbours a more cautious approach to protecting his lower leg.

"If you get kicked on your shin and your shin pad is that size of an Airpod, then obviously that's a big problem," Van Dijk said.

Brighton forward Danny Welbeck has said that his younger teammates ridicule his old-school shin pads -- "They say to me 'your shinnies are massive,' but you need a bit more safety, you know?" -- but just like Saka, Fulham winger Alex Iwobi prefers the small, lightweight guards because "I just don't like having something heavy on my shin."

Former England and Liverpool forward Peter Crouch regularly raises the shin pad issue on his podcast, That Peter Crouch Podcast, under the light-hearted "Make Shin Pads Great Again" banner, with Fulham midfielder Harry Wilson saying this season that some of his teammates "cut up the sponge you get from the physio and use that."

If a high-profile player sustains this type of injury thanks to tiny shin pads, the kind that forces them to miss the World Cup or that happens on the biggest stage this summer -- the debate about the shrinking move towards smaller pads will likely increase in volume.

The trend towards smaller shin pads -- and away from larger models that would also include ankle protectors -- is rooted in many things, including the game becoming less physical with fewer tackles and players wanting to feel as light as possible to boost their sprinting speed. But it is also a result of a change in the Laws of the Game in July 2024 when IFAB (the International Football Association Board) amended the rule covering shin pads (Law 4) to place the responsibility on the player rather than the match officials to ensure sufficient shin protection was worn.

Prior to the change, the responsibility was on referees to police the rule, but many were being ignored by players and clubs and then criticised -- or even sometimes challenged in court -- for failing to impose the rules if a player was subsequently injured. But the Law remains vague and open to interpretation. There is no minimum size required, only that the shin pads are "covered entirely by the socks, are made of suitable material (rubber, plastic or similar substances) and provide a reasonable degree of protection."

"The reason we changed the Law was because it is impossible to legislate and say a shin pad must be a certain size," David Elleray, IFAB Technical Director and former Premier League referee told ESPN. "So two years ago, we put the responsibility on the players that they should wear something which they believe protects them.

"The challenge we had was partly legal. If we left the responsibility with the referees and the referees said, "Okay, that shin guard is okay," then the player got injured, the player might decide to take action. So we put that very firmly in the court of the players and the coaches, and for young players, the parents."

The change of the Law has led to players placing speed and aesthetics -- many dislike the bulk of larger shin pads -- above safety, however, and Elleray admits it has not led to a sensible approach by players and clubs.

"We [IFAB] had hoped, or expected, that they would take a responsible attitude to it, but there was one recently [Marcus Edwards] that was almost like a sticking plaster," Elleray said. "The pressure needs to go on the individual players, the coaches and the clubs to make sure their players are protected because it's impossible to legislate for."

Former leading referee Pierluigi Collina, now the Chair of the FIFA referees' committee, has urged players to be more mindful of their wellbeing when choosing their shin guards. "At the end of the day, the shin pad rule is for their own safety," Collina told ESPN. "So they should care of what is really safe for them."

But as shocking as Holtby's injury was, it perhaps generated such attention because of the rarity of such incidents. Broken legs and deep cuts and gashes seem less prevalent despite the reduction in shin pad sizes, with muscle tears and ligament injuries to ankle and knee more likely to sideline a player.

The argument put forward by those who favour small shin pads is that players no longer suffer serious impact injuries, and that may be a valid point. In a recent example of a bad impact injury, Liverpool's Alexander Isak was wearing small -- but not tiny -- shin pads when he suffered a fractured leg in a challenge with Tottenham's Micky van de Ven last December, but it would be difficult to argue that larger shin pads would have diminished the severity of Isak's injury.

Sources at the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) have told ESPN that "primary decisions around safety are taken by players in consultation with their club and medical teams" and that players ultimately "feel comfortable with different shapes and sizes of shin pads." There is certainly no drive within the game to force players to re-think the protection being offered by their shin pads.

Football trends have changed since larger and heavier shin pads were the go-to model for top players. The Umbro Armadillo, which was manufactured during the early-2000s, was a large plastic guard with ankle protectors and was worn by Michael Owen and Alan Shearer, while Brazil forward Ronaldo wore Nike's T90 model. Both designs were significantly larger, heavier and stronger than the pads now being preferred.

Today's younger players prefer small, lightweight pads and the shifting trend led two brothers -- Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Ethan Chislett and Zack, who plays for UAE-based Palm City -- to develop their brand of Joga shinpads, which are tiny, much lighter and softer than traditional pads. The Joga Shinpad Sleeve, worn by Chelsea's João Pedro, is an iPhone-sized soft pad within a fabric sleeve that's worn to cover the shin. Everton midfielder Grealish wears Joga's Breathe pads that measure just 6 cm x 10 cm (2 inches x 4 inches).

"We were the first ones to make a mini shin pad that you could buy," Zack Chislett told ESPN. "I was playing non-league at the time, my brother Ethan was playing for AFC Wimbledon, and we noticed that pads were getting smaller and smaller, but there was no-one giving players an option to buy them. They were just using anything they could find in the physio's bag, so the demand was obviously there."

But why do young players want their shin pads to be so small and lacking in protection?

"When you're training the whole week without shin pads and you then put the big pad on, sometimes with ankle pads, on a Saturday, it doesn't feel natural like when you're training," Zack said. "Some players will feel better with the big shin pad, but a lot of the younger, more attacking players don't feel that way and they don't want to feel as restricted when they go on the pitch.

"And the game has changed, 100%. The tackles aren't coming in like they used to, it isn't as aggressive or as physical. I'm 23 and players of my generation just don't want to wear big shin pads -- it would be like wearing old, heavy leather boots. It just isn't going to happen."

The likes of Welbeck and van Dijk are being usurped by players such as Saka, Iwobi, Grealish and Joao Pedro when it comes to the size and protective elements of their shin pads.

Perhaps Holtby's injury will prompt some players to think about the risks of playing without suitable protection and a high-profile injury at this summer's World Cup could also lead to FIFA imposing stricter guidelines on what can, and can't, be worn by players. But right now, footballers are putting risk to one side in favour of speed and freedom of movement, so shin pads could get smaller and smaller.