Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale caused a stir on Saturday afternoon.
Not because he helped Southampton keep only their second clean sheet of the Premier League season at Craven Cottage in a goalless draw against Fulham, but due to the modified four-fingered glove he was wearing on his left hand.
Ramsdale, 26, was making his return to the starting XI after being sidelined since November 9 with a fractured finger that required surgery.
Speaking after the match, Ramsdale joked that although the glove enabled him to play, it came with its own unique challenges.
“It’s at its worst when you’re trying to tell the lads ‘four-man wall’ and you’re holding up three fingers!,” he told BBC 5 Live Sport after the match.
The Athletic breaks down how Ramsdale and Adidas, his glove supplier, captured the imagination on Saturday…
Why did Ramsdale need the glove?
The Athletic broke the news that Ramsdale had a suspected fractured finger and that he needed to undergo surgery to repair it.
He sustained the injury during Southampton’s 2-0 defeat away to Wolverhampton Wanderers on November 9 and was immediately ruled out for the foreseeable future.
Ramsdale has played through various injuries in the past and had been desperate to return to the starting XI, but the break was a particularly bad one and meant there was no realistic chance of him playing on.
What has his recovery been like?
Both Southampton and Ramsdale did not want to put a timeline on how long he would be sidelined as neither side wanted to rush the recovery and potentially cause further complications or setbacks.
Ramsdale appeared as a pundit on TNT Sports for Southampton’s 5-0 defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur — a loss that was one too many for Russell Martin — and was asked about his recovery.
The former Arsenal goalkeeper told the broadcaster that he wanted to make sure “it’s fixed properly” before making his return, also noting that it is “getting more bendy”.
Despite the injury, Ramsdale continued to train at Staplewood, Southampton’s training base, but only used his feet.
There were discussions about Ramsdale making his return for the Carabao Cup quarter-final against Liverpool on Wednesday night, but it was decided to give him a few extra days ahead of the Fulham match.
The thinking behind the small delay was that until it was tested in training, nobody knew how his finger would respond to the strapping and modified glove. But after testing his pain level in training, Ramsdale reported back that it had responded well and the decision was made for him to return to the line-up.
How does it allow him to play despite a broken finger?
Ramsdale’s finger has had metal rods inserted into it and they are effectively holding it in place until it fully heals.
There is still some way to go before it can be considered healed, but the modified glove allowed him to return to action quicker than he otherwise could have if he had used a normal glove.
The design allowed Ramsdale’s left middle and ring fingers to be taped together, providing additional support.
Who made the glove for him?
Ramsdale’s glove supplier is Adidas, the German sportswear and footwear company, and they immediately got to work designing the glove following the Wolves match.
The initial hope was that Ramsdale, who had been called up to the England squad for the November internationals, would be able to play through the injury and report to the national team.
That changed, however, when his scan results came back and it was a bad fracture to his finger, which required three pins to be put into his finger.
Adidas then made some tweaks and adjustments to the glove before Ramsdale was deemed fit enough to return to training.
Do kit makers make injury-related adaptations to gear regularly?
It is relatively normal for kit makers to adjust their equipment to help an injured player.
Ramsdale wore a similar glove for a spell at Arsenal, while at Copa America in the summer, Julio Gonzalez, Mexico’s goalkeeper, wore a four-fingered glove to help him play with a broken finger.
In March, Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli sustained a significant cut to his heel and Adidas got to work on making him a special boot to help him play through the pain barrier. They settled on a design with additional padding and protection which enabled the Brazilian forward to continue playing until the end of the season.
According to the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the body responsible for determining the laws of football, their rules state that “non-dangerous protective equipment”, including goalkeeper gloves, has to be “made of soft, lightweight padded material”.
Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe sported a face mask at Euro 2024 after breaking his nose following a collision with Kevin Danso during France’s first group-stage game against Austria.
“It’s horrible playing with a mask,” Mbappe told reporters at the tournament. “I keep changing masks because every time there is something that bothers me. It’s quite difficult playing with a mask because it limits your field of vision, your sweat clogs up and you need to let the sweat out. I hate it. It’s really annoying. I’ve had to change it five times.”
Petr Cech, the former Chelsea goalkeeper, previously wore a padded helmet, the type you see frequently used by rugby players, following his horrific on-pitch collision in October 2006 that left him with a depressed skull fracture and in need of emergency surgery.
(Top photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)
