h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Firstly let me say I was one of those mad people who played in goal, I also did a bit of coaching and umpired as well.

The problem with knee injuries on older players is principally due to a lack of adequate shock padding underneath the artificial grass surface, a problem that in recent years has been recognised and mostly remodied.

The reason skin abrasions from sand filled pitches take a long time to heal is because it is normal practice to mix an arsenic based weed/moss killer with the sand. Arsenic significantly slows down the speed with which wounds heal. If you do get cuts or abrasions from a sand filled pitch you should flush the wound out with copious quantities of water as soon as possible.

I`m also a goalkeeper, and I actually love playing on sandy pitches, because you slide much faster at strikers
I don`t know how many of you have been fortunate enough to play on redgra/gravel. It`s worse than sand for injuries, it`s terrible to play on because the ball bounces off the stones, it wrecks you`re hockey stick. For goalkeepers it`s the worst because of the bounces and because you have to close you`re eyes when you`re diving as strikers not only hit the ball at you but a load of gravel too, which will all go in your eyes if you`re not careful.