The severity of these injuries varies. Cartilage tears and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) sprains in the knee are some of the more common injuries that may require surgery. Other injuries include fractures and contusions from direct blows to the body. (“Soccer Injuries - Sports Medicine Program - UR Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center - Rochester, NY”) I can relate to this because I had cartilage tears in both of my knees which both happened from playing soccer, and these injuries can take from 2 weeks to even a year or more to recover from. Although shin guards do keep you safe, many people complain that they also slow you down. Shin guards really don't slow you down because many Shin guards do not weigh more than 70g and the size of them can vary.Even though many argue that shin guards are very big and heavy, according to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, the average weight of the 5 most used shin guards was 74.6 grams which is about.17lbs. Shin guards this weight should not affect your speed and do their job of protecting you just fine.As a soccer player, I have Nike shin guards and I do not even notice them half of the time while I am