PRACTICALLY since they were first invented and installed more than 50 years ago, plastic pitches for a variety of sports have been the subject of constant and considerable debate.

They have been at the heart of several recent rammies in Scottish sport – the Professional Footballers Association’s Scottish division started the most recent debate by claiming that the majority of its members would prefer to play on a deteriorating grass pitch than plastic.

The Scottish Football Association responded with a stinging rebuke that didn’t actually address the issue that PFA Scotland was raising – the lack of research on injuries caused to players by playing on plastic. And remember that Steven MacLean of St Johnstone cannot play on it due to medical advice. Rangers manager Mark Warburton’s detestation of them made headlines after the Ibrox club’s top scorer Martyn Waghorn was injured on Kilmarnock’s plastic surface.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think there’s any doubt that the “unforgiving” nature of the Rugby Park surface, as Warburton described it, did indeed contribute to the seriousness of Waghorn’s injury, but several studies in the USA, where American Football has been played for many years on FieldTurf, as they call it, show that the incidence of injury is actually less on plastic than grass, though ‘turf toe’ is a recognised condition caused by playing on plastic.

So what does Scottish football, and Scottish sport generally, do about this issue? Knowing the SFA, they will do damn all that might cost them money, and will hide behind the Fifa statutes that permit such plastic pitches to be installed where climate conditions dictate their use.

Older readers may recall the original name for the surface – AstroTurf, so called because it was developed for the Astrodome in Houston which opened almost 51 years ago on April 9, 1965. AstroTurf remains a trademark, but most people these days simply refer to plastic pitches, even though many newer surfaces such as that of Murrayfield are actually hybrids, consisting of natural grass reinforced by artificial fibres.

That Desso hybrid pitch is almost certainly going to be installed at Scotstoun after the ruination of Glasgow Warriors’ season by the weather, which points to the biggest plus about plastic – you can play on it in any weather bar heavy snow and ice.

Now as Partick Thistle fans would miserably testify, grass surfaces tend to have vastly more postponements due to the weather – an important consideration when a lot of clubs need fortnightly cash injections just to survive. Yet should we allow economic matters dictate how the game is played in Scotland? What about other points such as injuries and the sheer unfairness of some clubs having plastic and others not?

Do they actually change the game? Of course they do, as Kenny Miller of Rangers willingly testified after his wonderful volleyed goal won the match for Rangers on plastic Palmerston Park on Sunday. “It probably wouldn’t have happened on grass – it wouldn’t have bounced that high,” said Miller of his 100th goal in Scottish league football.

Players, though, adjust to them quite well in the main, it seems, not least because a lot of clubs have plastic training surfaces. Yet it is a simple fact that most footballers would prefer to play on grass. The reason is simple – there is a perception on the part of players, managers and fans that playing on an artificial surface causes injury and ill-health. And the harsh truth is that due to the ineptitude of football’s authorities in this country, and the vested interests of some club directors, there is no hard evidence in existence to either prove or disprove the case for plastic.

I find it quite staggering that there has been no research in Scottish football into the number and types of injuries caused to players by playing on plastic. Footballers are among the most cosseted individuals in sport, yet their clubs put them out to play on a surface which could be damaging them. Oh, that will be money, then.

For instance, several managers and club doctors over the years have stated that there is a greater risk of long-term conditions such as osteoarthritis of the knee, ankle and hip from playing on plastic. No one can say that with certainty, however, as no one has actually checked.

John Hughes, of Inverness Caledonian Thistle, was adamant about the biggest issue to do with plastic: “Just tell the truth, it’s the injuries. You pick up joint problems, knee problems, ankle, hip problems.”

Research needs to happen to see whether Hughes is right. The SFA must commission medial research as soon as possible, and the researchers can start by asking Steven MacLean.

This is what he said recently: “A few years ago I played on AstroTurf and a week or so later I had to go and see the surgeon. I needed an operation as I had a micro fracture. Then the same happened about a year later.

“I spoke to the surgeon and he advised me not to play on the AstroTurf. Now when an AstroTurf game comes around the gaffer just tells me straight away I will not be playing.”

Come on SFA, do the decent thing, or will it have to take a court case for compensation before the governing body does something?