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Mark Reynolds insists a plastic pitch played a part in wrecking his season and has backed calls to see them banned from the top flight.

The Aberdeen defender suffered cruciate ligament damage in a pre-season friendly at Cove and is only now fully fit.

Brendan Rodgers and Steven Gerrard have been some of the biggest critics of artificial surfaces and Reynolds reckons the Balmoral Stadium pitch contributed to his knee issue.

The 31-year-old said: “The plastic pitch was to blame as I don’t think there is any give in them if you are turning or get caught with a tackle.

“The force is going to follow the path of least resistance and obviously people have done their cruciate ligaments on grass but astroturf significantly increases the chances.

(Image: SNS Group)

“That’s the nature of the game and it’s not ideal but if that match had been on grass I would have had more chance of getting away with it instead of my studs locking into the astro.

“It’s an entertainment industry and I don’t see entertaining football played on astro pitches.

“It’s a different game and I can see why clubs have them in terms of the financial advantage and you also get an advantage if you train on it every day.

“You know how the pitch runs but I have never enjoyed playing on it and it’s not the same as playing on a good grass park.”

The controversial surfaces have also impacted on Reynolds’s chance to get straight back into Derek McInnes’s first team.

(Image: SNS Group)

He has been told he won’t be allowed to play on artificial pitches this season.

Aberdeen head to Hamilton tomorrow night and the centre-half will need to sit out as well as next week’s Scottish Cup replay at Stenhousemuir.

Reynolds said: “I won’t play on them again this season as there is too high a chance of re-injury so I’ll wait until the summer and speak to the physios to see where we go from there.

“I need to look long term but obviously it’s a strong squad here with a lot of competition for places in the team.

“If I have to miss a game like the one on the astro at Hamilton it make things more stop-start than it needs to be.”

Reynolds admitted he felt like he had been shot when he first suffered the injury.

He said: “It was on one of those plastic pitches but I didn’t know right away it was so serious even though it felt like I’d been shot!”

(Image: Ian Georgeson/SNS Group)

It was a double whammy for Reynolds as his injury came at a time when the Dons suffered a defensive injury crisis with Andrew Considine, Scott McKenna, Tommie Hoban and Mikey Devlin all sidelined for long spells.

The former Motherwell star said: “It was frustrating because the six months before that the chances to get into the team were few and far between.

“I then came back in pre-season and felt strong but as soon as I picked up the injury boys started to drop like flies.”

It is a big five months for Reynolds as his contract is due to expire.

And he said: “I have never hidden the fact that I enjoy it here and want to stay.”