Reigning Player of the Year Clint Bolton is on the sidelines after suffering a groin injury during training last week.
Reigning Player of the Year Clint Bolton is on the sidelines after suffering a groin injury during training last week.
While VPL standout Nikola Roganovic capably assumes the mantle of starting custodian in Bolton-s absence, High Performance Manager, Medical, Martin Wollin provided us with an insight into the former Socceroo-s rehabilitation program.
Wollin said: With an acute muscle injury, the primary step is to settle down the acuteness and manage it accordingly.
We then need start exercise based rehab in the clinic, in the gym, cross training before making the transition across to more goal keeper specific rehab where you train within the domain of the injury with some restrictions before migrating to a full program and normal goalkeeper duties.
The injury Clint has sustained can present difficulties with lateral movement and shifting your body weight sideways very quickly and dynamically. He needs to regain full confidence in those movement patterns.
Clint is well out of the acute stage now. He did his first modified goalkeeper on-pitch rehab session today, so he needs to build on that.
Once we feels he-s tracking well, he probably needs a couple of weeks to build further before we feel he-s in the frame to be considered for Hyundai A-League selection.
Bolton isn-t the only player out of the selection frame, with Simon Colosimo, on the comeback trail from a calf injury, and Adrian Zahra, who remains out indefinitely after returning from major surgery the other high profile names on the injury list.
Check in next week for another update from Melbourne Heart FC-s physio room.
