It is an issue that is dividing football, a classic example of one generation questioning the choices of another, but the sight of a former Tottenham and Germany player rolling on the pitch in agony with a severely gashed leg earlier this month might end up changing opinions about the ever-decreasing size of shin guards.
Until recently, shin guards covered the entire shin -- sometimes up to 9 inches long -- and they were made of foam or rubber with a hard plastic shell. But in recent years, some players have abandoned the protective element completely, wearing only tiny pieces of foam under their socks, and it seems only a matter of time before a serious injury leads to a rethink in what players are wearing.
Lewis Holtby's injury, sustained while playing for Dutch team NAC Breda against Fortuna Sittard in the Eredivisie on April 12, looks to have ended the 35-year-old's season due to the depth of the wound on his left shin following a challenge with an opposition defender. It also led to a blame game centered on Holtby's shin guards.
"I think it's ridiculous that the referee [Jeroen Manschot] says something about it," Breda coach Carl Hoefkens said after the game. "In the tunnel, it was said [by Manschot] that Holtby should just wear shin guards, or better shin guards. The officials also check the shin guards before the match, so it's their responsibility as well."
La aparatosa lesión de Lewis Holtby este fin de semana. 😬 Vía ESPNnl/X pic.twitter.com/WgHl4PL5xo
Breda defender Denis Odoi spoke about Holtby's "small shin guards" and said "You're never too old to learn," when asked about players wearing "normal" shin guards again, while ESPN NL analyst, former Ajax and PSV Eindhoven winger Kenneth Perez, was more critical.
"They [players] are now wearing those tiny things, or basically toilet paper, just to have something there," Perez said. "I have absolutely no sympathy for injuries that result from that.
"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 guards. Others have their socks just below the knee, but still sport shin guards half the size of a cellphone, 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 guards -- "I'm a fan of them; I don't like big shin pads" -- though Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk harbors a more cautious approach to protecting his lower leg.