A sports journalist who is spending an increasing amount of time out the front of medical centres waiting to capture footage of limping footballers is beginning to question his career plan. The man, who requested strict anonymity out of fear of upsetting his employer, said the obsession of news networks getting video of footballers entering office buildings had gotten out of hand. 

The man said, “At first it was just Olympic Park Sports Medicine, which wasn’t too bad because it’s next door to Melbourne and Collingwood footy clubs, and not far from Richmond, but now we’re being sent all over Melbourne. It’s a waste of time really. The players don’t want to talk to us, so we’re pretty much just chaperoning cameramen who take the footage and then send it back to headquarters.”

Why networks feel the viewing public need to see these images is unclear, but the trend is going very strong. Unless reporters are trained to diagnose complicated injuries merely by studying a player’s gait over 30-40 metres, the whole thing seems pointless. 

And the trend has now extended to filming players while they are walking into their clubs to attend recovery sessions the day after games. The natural progression of this phenomenon has left players feeling nervous. One player, who also requested anonymity, said “I’m not sure how much further this can go. If I see these blokes hanging around outside Coles to analyse the contents of my trolley when I go in for my weekly shop I’ll almost not be surprised.”

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