Could this be our best signing of the summer?

Dr Peter Brukner will take up his position as Head of Sports Medicine and Sports Science at Liverpool Football Club after the World Cup. The announcement was made a couple of months ago after a long exhaustive search for a new head of medicine saw Liverpool headhunt prospective candidates from across the world. Brukner is currently head doctor of the Australian Socceroos and will be with the side when they play in the World Cup in South Africa. So why have the Reds picked this Australian to head up our medical department?

Brukner has been a leading light in Australia over the past 25 years in Sports Medicine. After being a club doctor with Australian Football League sides Melbourne and Collingwood, he moved on to be the national team doctor for Australia’s swimming, athletics and hockey teams and he has been the team doctor at many Olympics, Commonwealth games and World Championships. Over the years, he has become an instrumental figure in the development of sports medicine as a specialty in Australia and is a co-founder of the Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre in Melbourne, the largest sports medicine clinic in Australia. Australia seemingly leads the world in terms of sports science and medicine, and both this, along with his experience in other sports, attracted Liverpool to Brukner. The Australian believes football can learn a lot from other sports:

“Football is probably a little bit behind the cutting edge that’s out there in other parts of the world. Maybe that’s a cultural thing with football clubs – the traditional set-up has been the same for many years. Other sports in other countries have maybe gone ahead a bit. The idea now is to get the best of what’s out there around the world and bring it to Liverpool.”

The most important aspect of Sports Medicine is of course, the prevention of injuries, and Brukner may have his work cut out with Liverpool. The Reds had a long injury list last season with Fernando Torres one of the major culprits sidelined by injury. Liverpool’s medical department was hugely criticised by the agent of Harry Kewell who believed his player lost two years of his career because of the Reds’ poor medical judgements. Brukner however, believes that his cutting edge techniques will help ease the long injury lists:

“You can’t stop all injuries. There are certain injuries which are inevitable – like when someone gets a kick or something. But I think we can certainly reduce the amount of injuries – particularly what we call soft tissue injuries. Things like hamstring muscle, groin muscle, calf muscle and tears.”

The best way of doing this is through injury prevention and continuous monitoring of players’ health. Two dramatic changes that will be introduced straight away by Brukner next season will be 15 minute injury protection drills and GPS fitness monitoring systems. Before each training session, players will be asked to undergo a 15 minute exercise specific to working on hamstrings, groins, thighs, calves and other potential areas that are susceptible to soft tissue injuries. On top of this, their fitness will be constantly monitored by GPS Systems to show doctors what parts of the players’ body are being put under particular strain, which will allow them to advise coaching staff accordingly as to what fitness training they should be undertaking. It will mean that players will be separated into particular groups depending on their injury history and they will work on specific areas of the body which are most susceptible to injury. Such continuous monitoring will allow both coaching and medical staff to adjust training in conjunction with their fitness status and will help players recover from injuries far quicker. Brukner himself was invited last month to get himself acquainted with the club’s medical staff and facilities to allow him to hit the ground running when he returns from the World Cup. He will then implement his new fitness regime straight away for pre-season training, hopefully paying huge dividends for those players returning with tired bodies from the World Cup. Fernando Torres could well be one of those to benefit most from Brukner. Could the Australian be our best signing of the summer?

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