Footballers are suffering “life-changing” injuries on drought-affected pitches, according to a chairman of a senior amateur league.Grassroots leagues across England have been forced to adjust the start of their seasons after one of the hottest and driest summers on record left parched pitches dangerous to play on.Dale Brown, chairman of the Anglian Combination — which contains 100 teams and is at step 11 of the English football league system across Norfolk and Suffolk, and step seven of the National League — says the league has received reports of serious injuries during unofficial games, such as pre-season friendlies, over the summer months.After an extraordinary meeting of the Anglian Combination Committee, it was unanimously decided that the start date for league matches should be delayed by two weeks to the end of August in the hope some much-needed rain would make the surfaces safer for play.“What we’ve noticed, and what’s been reported to us as a league, is a spate of injuries that have been in some circumstances life-changing,” Brown told The Athletic. “There have been smashed elbows, fractured skulls, falls onto extremely hard ground where it’s not just been a pull strain or a muscle ache — it’s been quite severe.“There didn’t appear to be any let up in the weather so we decided to delay the season by two weeks for player welfare. We have never had to delay the start of the season ever before. This is completely unprecedented.”The move has been echoed across the country after England recorded its driest July since records began in 1836, according to the Met Office.Just 6.5mm of rain — just 10 per cent of the long-term rainfall average, the typical amount of rain that falls in a specific place — was recorded last month. Southern England also experienced its driest individual calendar month ever observed, prompting widespread official drought status covering more than 70 per cent of the nation.Grass pitches across the country have become so dry and fatigued that cracks have opened up on some, with grass reduced to straw.Artificial turf protects the goal mouth on a dry pitch in Reading (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)The Football Association has issued advice to all leagues across the country on how to cope with the drought and, while there has been no blanket suspension of play on grass pitches, the FA is urging clubs to assess pitches before going ahead with fixtures.As well as delaying the start of league seasons, clubs have been looking to reverse fixtures where possible or play on artificial surfaces if available.