A couple of weeks ago, Spanish journalist Guillem Balague came out with this statement about Liverpool’s medical department:
“There is a doctor working at the club who has been allowed to make sports science a priority. Nothing wrong with that, you might think, a characteristic of many clubs in the modern age; however, this particular doctor has a level of influence over team selection unseen anywhere else.”
At the time I didn’t think much of it, after all it seemed Balague may have been exaggerating things a little. But there have been a couple of quotes recently from Roy Hodgson that suggest there is tension between the Sports Science team and the manager over when players are available for selection. The latest comes from when Roy talked about Daniel Agger’s return today:
“Agger is much better and working very, very hard. He’s really pushing himself beyond what we could expect him to do. His attitude to getting back is first class. We’re targeting the Fulham game. The Sports Science people are telling me it’s too soon and that really he needs a bit longer, but in my conversations with him he is in agreement that Fulham isn’t out of the question so he’s pushing it.”
From this it would be safe to say that Roy does have the final say as to when player’s return to action but there is certainly some disagreement between the Sports Scientists and Roy over the issue. The “particular doctor” in question that Balague is talking about is of course Dr Peter Brukner. A world leader in Sports Science and Sports Medicine, Brukner has overseen a complete transformation of the Medical department at Anfield with a raft of new programmes and a small army of doctors and Sports Scientists. Here is a list of medical personnel currently on the Reds payroll: Dr Peter Brukner, Zaf Iqbal, Darren Burgess, Phil Coles, Rob Price, Andrew Nealon, Matt Konopinski, Chris Morgan, Jordan Milsom, Alan McCall, Ivan Ortega, Paul Small, Sylvan Richardson, Barry Drust, James Morton and James Malone.
The size and scale of the department increased massively during the summer, although it has already given the Reds squad some benefits. Roy Hodgson believes the amount of “soft tissue” injuries has already been dramatically decreased, and has praised the long and regimented fitness regime before and after training. Each player has their own workout according to their injury history and Sports Science has become an integral part of every training session. Liverpool now also have a formal link with one of Britain’s leading Sports Science faculties at John Moores University and now have graduates working at Liverpool from the university’s Sports Science department.
It is clear that the Reds are leading the way in football in regards to Sports Medicine but having such a large medical department must have its difficulties. The large amount of personnel means it will have a great deal of power and influence over whether a player plays or not, and the Head Doctor Peter Brukner, with a team of dozens behind him backing up his point of view, will certainly give Roy Hodgson food for thought when considering risking players for selection. Balague’s point above does still seem exaggerated to me though, and at the end of the day, the medical department is just looking out for the club’s and player’s best interests.
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i wrote on this site within a week or two of the start of the season that roy has to be strong in dealing with sports scientists etc – he picks the team but as with all my other hopes roy has fell short and done none of the common sense things expected. i dont like his big mouth or his lack of knowledge of what liverpool are about but i hope he succeeds.
Obviously the Sports Science people are doing a great job in helping the players prevent injuries and help them recover more quickly but there should be a limit in how much influence they have when it comes to team selection. They should simply be advising Roy on players’ injuries and fitness levels but at the end of the day, whether the players are risked or not or are drafted back into the team before they are 100% fit should be Roy’s decision, not the Sports Science people.