Injuries. The restart problem. | Vital Football

Injuries. The restart problem.

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Lack of friendlies means more injuries as pre-season is crunched

Mike McGrath speaks to experts on the impact of trying to cram six weeks of pre-season into half that time


By Mike McGrath 19 May 2020 • 11:08am

Return to the training ground
Players will return to training on Tuesday - assuming they pass their coronavirus tests - with very little time to get back up to speed before the Premier League resumes.
An ideal pre-season would normally last six weeks but in these strange circumstances clubs are looking at three to four weeks before they are likely to be asked to play, either on June 12th or 19th.
For the last two months players have been ticking over with lockdown training on their own, sometimes through videolink with the rest of their team-mates, but today clubs will look to find out exactly how fit their players are. It is a tough start that no player looks forward to.
“For two days they would get through the testing battery,” explains Rene Meulensteen, who helped run pre-season training when he was Sir Alex Ferguson's first-team coach at Manchester United between 2007 to 2013.
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Rene Meulensteen pictured with Sir Alex Ferguson during a Manchester United training session in 2009 Credit: AP
“From previous stats you get a base number and find out where everybody is. Then you basically start sessions in close cooperation with the strength and conditioning guys and you build it up from general, to more specific, then more towards games.
“Normally we would have 10 days before we would travel for pre-season tour. There would be on-and-off days of double and single sessions.
“Double sessions were both outdoors, single sessions would be outdoor but probably another strength and conditioning element to it.”
The amount of time clubs will have before they move to stage two of the return to training protocols remains to be seen, but it is likely to be less than 10 days.
Running
With no contact allowed running will be even more vital a part of clubs' preparations than normal as they attempt to build player fitness up quicker than usual.
For some that can bring back painful memories. At Sheffield United, for example, they had “Terror Tuesday” during their tour in Portugal, when Chris Wilder build up players’ fitness with a gruelling exercise.
“The 11-a-side pitch was split into six with a pole separating each section,” said Sheffield United full-back George Baldock. “You sprint for one section, then jog for five. Then sprint for two and jog for four, then so on.
“Everyone was on their knees when we did it and then he says: ‘You’ve got to go do it again back down to one. Then he’s got us all to the halfway line and says ‘right, you’ve got to run 1,200 metres as quick as you can’. Everyone at the end just collapses and he said pre-season is over and welcome to the games.”
At Manchester United, they would incorporate ball work with their running. “There would be game-related drills so you would work on full-pitches, 10 v 10, 8 v 8 with overloads,” said Meulensteen.
“Different aspects but trying to implement key principles for possession and switches of play, looking forward and breaking lines. The strength and conditioning guys would do extra running throughout the different parts of the week with different intensities.”
Friendlies
While running will build cardiovascular fitness the lack of friendlies will be the big difference compared to a normal pre-season as players attempt to build up their fitness over the next month. And according to former England and Arsenal physio Gary Lewin, there will be a bigger risk of injury without warm-up matches.
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Gary Lewin attempts to repair Daniel Sturridge Credit: GETTY IMAGES
“During a pre-season you incorporate several friendlies of different levels to gradually increase the intensity,” Lewin said. “Players might play 30 minutes, 60 minutes then a full 90. You build it up over a six-week period but what has happened with the coronavirus, they may have internal games among themselves but they won’t replicate the match situations. I wouldn’t say there will definitely be injuries but there is a higher risk of injury.
“Injuries occur through two main reasons. Fatigue, or not enough strength so they will overload a muscle. Both could happen here. With fatigue, I could see calf injuries. From the lack of intensity you could argue the same with hamstrings, thigh muscles and quads.
“When players return from a long period off training their reaction times are less. This is what players talk about being rusty.”
Meulensteen says United used the friendlies as an important gauge of the team’s progress. “You want to use the first two friendlies to get more physical work in and certain tactical principles,” he said. “Then you work more tactically and competitively as the matches go on. That is a big miss because when those players go out to play without those matches, it is hard to gauge where the team is.”
That means teams will go into their opening round of matches nervous about how their players will respond. Muscular injuries are likely to be a feature
Tours
One relief to coaches is that all their work will be done in one location. Every Premier League club goes abroad in normal pre-seasons, with the bigger teams often going long-haul in lucrative tours to expand their fanbase.
“If there was an element of travel we would have to factor in travel and time zones,” Meulensteen said. “They were the considerations when you have a commercial element. If you have full control of pre-season and go to Spain or Austria, you just make sure you fit in those six weeks, pencilling in friendly games from back to front.
“When the games start, I would call it a second phase of preparation because you are not using all the players. Then you are in the full swing of things and you have everyone completely firing coming to the end of August.”
That is no longer an option. Instead, it is pedal to the metal for three to four weeks as clubs desperately try to get up to speed. Who does so most effectively will have a huge advantage when the Premier League does resume.
 
I mentioned this a while back. Normally the players have a pre season series of competitive friendlies to sharpen their fitness and touch.
 
I mentioned this a while back. Normally the players have a pre season series of competitive friendlies to sharpen their fitness and touch.
Haha so true there Nick, any games we see if the PL is resumed will be like those friendlies, as I thought the German games looked like.
 
Interestingly, I heard a snippet the other day that a number of PL clubs are asking Div2 clubs to prepare sides for friendlies, with all costs, testing etc being met by the PL clubs.

With that and youth/junior players being called into work, they should get some intensive games, but obviously not up to the match fitness standard they're all going to need.
 
Interestingly, I heard a snippet the other day that a number of PL clubs are asking Div2 clubs to prepare sides for friendlies, with all costs, testing etc being met by the PL clubs.

With that and youth/junior players being called into work, they should get some intensive games, but obviously not up to the match fitness standard they're all going to need.
The premier league needs to do something to help the lower leagues out. If that means more televised friendlies over the summer/next year to bring money to those clubs then that can only be good thing for the financial health of those clubs.
 
Derby County's CEO said yesterday that the club have had zero income since suspension, whereas by now normally they'd have the vast majority of the season ticket money in..

Believes there will have to be big salary cuts even next year, zero transfer activity and redundancies without a retun, he thinks 40% of Championships clubs - even with help- may still go under.