General manager of football operations Lee O’Neill says the club’s medical and sports science staff will put together a report on the club’s injury situation during the season with the Blues again having lost several players to fitness problems over the course of the campaign.

Tom Adeyemi suffered an achilles injury in pre-season and failed to feature at all fir the first team, as did Emyr Huws, who has been out since December 2017 with a knee problem, while Grant Ward, Freddie Sears and Ben Morris all had their seasons curtailed by ACL injuries and Ben Folami by an achilles problem.

In addition, loanees Jon Walters (achilles) and Matthew Pennington (ankle) had their seasons - and in the Irish international’s case his career - ended by injuries.

It was hardly the first time the Blues have suffered an injury-hit season with the previous campaigns also hampered by the loss of players to long-term problems.

Questioned on whether that situation would be assessed, O’Neill, at one-time the club's head of sports science, told TWTD: “All the time, again the medical team will do an annual report with the sports science team on all injuries.

“We have to, we have to look at all of those things and not let them occur for the following season.

“We go through everything right from training load, intensities, to what the players are wearing on their feet, the particular time they got injured.

“For us there is a particular element of the unfortunate when you look at the number of serious injuries that we’ve had with ACLs or achilles tears and things like that, they’re really serious injuries.

“If you break it down and look at soft tissue injuries, there’s actually been a massive reduction in the number of soft tissue injuries we’ve had and how we analyse those from the sports science side of things and the medical side of things - the injury prevention, the recovery strategies, the way we monitor intensity of training.

“They’re things that we’re constantly evaluating. Do we need to make improvements on them? Yes we do, but we’re doing that [in terms of] the infrastructure of the training ground and obviously the personnel itself. We’re looking at all of those areas.”

Photo: TWTD

EastKentBlue added 11:27 - May 14 Nobody ask why is it McGoldrick and Webster were barely fit but have had excellent seasons virtually ever present for their new clubs. There is clearly a fundamental issue with our sports science and its below par.
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SouperJim added 11:35 - May 14 Is it a fitness issue, or motivation to play? McGoldrick to a certain extent admitted he was in "comfort zone" at ITFC in a recent interview. You have to wonder at the likes of Adeyemi...
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BaddowBlue1 added 11:42 - May 14 Think our recruitment process needs to be reviewed. Stewart has just been replaced by Adeyemi on the treatment table. Huge drain on the clubs resources with little or no return. Did we not check these guys injury records before signing them?
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Suffolkboy added 11:44 - May 14 EKB ,couldn't agree more ; I've asked the question during this and last season AND whether it can be anything to do with not only the training regimes BUT just maybe the actual pitches themselves ? One hopes not ,and PR has presented well during the season ,but one suspects not all is 100% as there have been comments throughout about certain difficulties on the surface and particular areas . Early on we were given a ‘diary type ‘ article from the Ground Staff ; can we have a blunt commentary advising on success , how it's measured ,what improvements are needed ,OR could be achieved ? Looks are not everything , it's the quality / qualities for players, playing and maintenance which we hope are addressed ! COYB

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hampstead_blue added 11:46 - May 14 Probably about time they got some truly independent experts in to report. If things repeat then you do need a fresh perspective. GSI....get someone in.
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ShropshireBluenago09 added 12:12 - May 14 This is absolutely required. Much of our demise has been due to injuries to key players, who arguably could have kept us in the Championship.
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Bogblue added 12:15 - May 14 not before time, should've been done years ago, why's it only now happening? shows lack of careful approach previously
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BlueInBerks added 12:16 - May 14 East Kent - although not corroborated by the club, I heard McG was commuting from Midlands to PR for training. If that's the case, it doesn't take a sports scientist to tell you he will never be fit
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budgieplucker added 12:33 - May 14 I am sure sports science has a role to play, especially in helping rehabilitate players back from injury to follow a sensible well programmed routine with valuable measures to help identify the right times to increase intensity levels in training and to help prevent further injuries incurring and even when fit this looks as if it is helping soft tissue injuries before they occur. When purchasing players in the future it could also be useful to ask for the stats of individuals from their previous club to make more informed decisions on players like Adeyemi and Huws. But of course you can never really plan for freak injuries. However, NOW the very big if and back to earth environment of Division 1. Pitches are unlikely to be as well maintained, some clubs over water their pitches and of course you can't always plan for what clouds may be passing over come 3.00 pm on a Saturday afternoon. So I am not poo poohing Sports Science, it has its place but the “minds” of individuals are equally important and recruiting plays a big part getting players in with the right mentality and record of robustness on the field of play. The game was a lot lot more physically tougher in the Bobby Robson days - and today a tickle gets you a yellow card, perhaps players were much more mentally tougher in those days? One thing was certain then with much smaller squads youngsters had to be used to cover injuries, this accelerated their learning and matured them much quicker. Debuts of 16/17 & 18 year olds were much more common for us then, and look at how quick they developed as a result.

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runningout added 13:07 - May 14 as hinted. Half our injured employees were injury prone at previous clubs. We were foolish giving them any form of contract
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ArnieM added 13:52 - May 14 Town needs to look at the aetiology and trend of all injuries sustained at this Club over the past 5 seasons. We have been blighted by long term injuries for years now. So something is wrong with either of the following or a mix of them. 1) TYPE OF PLAYER recruited. Age bracket. Previous injury record. 2) WHEN injury has occurred, ie pre season, pre match, during training, during game ( 1st or 2nd half) 3) HOW injury occurred ie mechanism of injury. 4) REHAB Criteria. Is it supported by current evidenced base for best practice? 5) TRAINING Criteria. Is supported by evidence based practice. Is it tailored to individuals. Intrinsic factors: Are the players strong enough? Flexible enough, have adequate endurance, do players have adequate technique etc etc ( these factors link in with item 2) Extrinsic factors: Types of surface players train on. Footwear used, Time of day training occurs. How many times a day? Adequate rest? Mix of types of training? etc, etc Town have got to get a complete dossier on ALL of the above aspects in order to resolve this problem. Injuries such as the type, quantity, degree of seriousness, do not happen at other Championship Clubs to level that ITFC have consistently suffered over the past 3-4 years. SOMETHING is not being done correctly at this Club. It's about time they have finally decided to take a serious look at this.

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ollie_smith2001 added 14:02 - May 14 BlueInBerks - McG lived in Bealings
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blues1 added 15:09 - May 14 Ollie Smith. He may have had a house in Beslings but his wife and kids still lived in Nottingham, where he spent half the week.
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Toronto_Tractor added 23:24 - May 14 I HIGHLY doubt the physio/sports science team are at fault here. All clubs have an injury list. Ours may perhaps seem a little longe due to the injury-prone freebies we've picked up in recent years... McGoldrick, Huws, Adeyemi, Collins or even further back with ellington, ebanks-blake etc. THE ISSUE IS IN THE RECRUITMENT!!!! And ArnieM, youve just listed the basics of a first day at Physio School... I can imagine there faces when the realise they hadn't even considered the 'aetiology' or the 'rehab criteria'... duh

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Cheshire_Blue added 18:37 - May 15 So many experts, as usual!!
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