Dundalk boss Stephen O'Donnell voices artificial pitch concerns

Dundalk manager Stephen O'Donnell believes that there may be a direct correlation between their vast number of injuries and the fact that they play on an artificial surface at Oriel Park.

Sunday's draw with Derry City, who also operate on a synthetic surface at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, saw further additions to the treatment table with Andy Boyle injured in the warm-up and Greg Sloggett coming off during the 2-2 thriller.

"They [Dundalk and Derry City] are the two teams with the most injuries and we know what the correlation is," O’Donnell told the Irish Independent afterwards.

"It’s gone beyond probably a point of not a great surface to watch football on, it’s actually injuring players. Muscle injuries, there is no give on it. You go up for a header and if you don’t land square on the ball of your foot, you’re doing your ankle ligaments or doing your knee.

"I’m speculating but all I know is we get a lorry load of injuries and Derry get a lot of injuries. I'd just be a bit worried about the injury count."

While speaking to RTÉ Sport, O’Donnell added that any plans to reintroduce a grass pitch at Oriel Park would have to be weighed against its impact on their spending power for the squad itself.

"Dundalk's the biggest brand so it should have a good surface."

"Obviously that’s not my sort of pay grade, I'm involved in the football side of it.

"From that side of it, we all know, we’re all understanding of what it takes. It’s a lot of money to change the pitch and try and be competitive budget wise.

"Ultimately it’s going to come down to a finance thing and I don’t know, can we get help in regards the council or whatnot because from a facility point of view, Dundalk is the biggest in Dundalk and in Louth.

"Dundalk’s the