Think Steele admitted some players had mentioned it to him. With drier summers we can expect that it will keep getting harder unless something is done, I'd say. Having said that, it seems like a bit of an overblown story. Doing a hammy at training can also mean the "loads" are off, or the drills are too demanding, etc.
It’s not difficult to soften the ground, I assume we have a groundskeeper.
Golf courses punch holes (coring) about 1cm wide into greens twice a year so they don’t become too hard. Or they punch smaller thick nail sized holes.
If our ground is hard surely it wouldn’t be hard to get a hold of one of these golf course turf punchers and run it over the grass then give it a decent water.