ST. JOSEPH, Ill. (WCIA) — The safety of artificial turf, and its use in Central Illinois football fields, is being called into question again after a nationally televised injury to one of the NFL’s biggest stars.

On Monday Night Football this week, Aaron Rodgers played just four offensive snaps of football before he went down with a season-ending Achillies rupture. MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where the game was played, has artificial turf as its playing surface.

The material has frequently prompted national discussion whenever an injury happens on it. Locally, St. Joseph-Ogden High School uses artificial turf for its football field, along with many other schools.

“Honestly, knock on wood, we’ve been great as far as injuries so far,” said Justin Franzen, Activities Director at St. Joseph-Ogden. “We’ve had some small things, but we hope it stays that way.”

But Rodgers’ injury wasn’t a small thing. With extent of his injury, should high school-level players be worried? And what are the main differences between real and artificial grass?

“The feedback we’ve gotten from a lot of those kinds of people, the specialist people, is that there really isn’t that big of a difference,” Franzen said. “You may get more of a turf burn on turf obviously than you do on grass, but there are some other things with grass that you might not get if you are playing on turf.”

Franzen thinks it comes down to balancing turf with grass.

“I think it does really boil down to what I said about having a turf main field and a practice grass field that’s all sod,” Franzen said. “It’s that balance, I think, is what leads us into one week to the next. Honestly, it’s one game at a time for us and that’s how we look at it.”

A Minnesota-based orthopedic surgeon said the better turf, plus the much smaller, slower athletes compared to the pros, makes turf a fine option for youth level sports.

“There are some that suggest that turf is much more injury-prone and there are some studies that suggest the opposite,” Dr. Brian Sleasman said. “If you have grass that’s hard and icy and not growing, then probably the risk increases, where with turf, you don’t really have to worry about that.”

Although the debate rages forward in the world of the NFL, the biggest concern turf seems to bring for high schoolers is the occasional rug burn.