Head of Medical and Sports Science Stijn Vandenbroucke provides an update from the Treatment Room – in association with Spire Roding
Hello everyone,
We had a great result on Saturday, beating Chelsea, and picked up a few niggles from the game, but we now have everybody back fit and all of the players have joined back in during the course of the week.
Winston Reid has returned to training, while Alex Song will join the Development Squad in training on Saturday before joining the first-team squad on Sunday.
Doneil Henry will also join the Development Squad in training on Saturday, while Joey O’Brien returned and played for 62 minutes for the Under-21s on Monday evening without any problems, which was very good.
Hopefully we will not pick up any injuries at the Watford game and we will have a fully-fit squad available to train next week.
Having a fit squad is of course what we all want, but our work never ends. The main focus we always have is on the fit players and those who are available for selection by the manager.
Availability for matches is the most important thing and, for that reason, we have players who do different levels of training and individual work every week.
Players get ill, players pick up niggles and miss a day’s training, while some players do extra work or extra training.
As the manager Mr Bilic has said, training is individualised for every player. Some players train more and some players train less.
For example, Andy Carroll has had full training weeks for the first time in years recently, while others are given days off to prevent over-training and to keep them fit and available.
Now, we are focused on having a good week of training and sufficient rest in the final international break of the year and putting down the foundations for the winter, and then it is all about keeping the players fresh.
We have a deep and strong squad which helps us to be able to take the long-term approach and Mr Bilic, his staff and the Medical and Sport Science department all play an important role in this.
The challenge ahead is to get the players through a busy period without a winter break, which is going to be a new experience for some of them coming from European leagues.
Stijn Vandenbroucke
Head of Medical and Sports Science