With the start of pre-season training only 24 hours away, Melbourne Heart FC’s High Performance department has been hard at work, conducting a comprehensive screening program to ensure the side is ready to tackle the rigours of football at the elite level.
With the start of pre-season training only 24 hours away, Melbourne Heart FC-s High Performance department has been hard at work, conducting a comprehensive screening program to ensure the side is ready to tackle the rigours of football at the elite level.
High Performance Manager, Medical, Martin Wollin, outlines the process in the first of this two part series inside the treatment room.
“We have undergone a battery of pre-season medical and fitness tests in order for us to get a good profile of where the players are at in terms of their health, welfare and fitness.
The players- health and welfare is pretty important to us and basically we take them through a series of tests, everything from their muscular skeletal profile and the process there is to look at areas that may have been injured or are likely to be injured again to pick that up and identify it.
Players we find require treatment or individual programs will get that as a consequence of that test, and that-s something that will carry on throughout the season. There-s heaps of work the players do on their bodies to stay fit before they step onto the pitch for training and games.
We will also have them see our Team Doctor for a general medical assessment.
Most players have had flu vaccinations to minimise the risk of illness through the squad, we-ve had cognitive testing, which is a computer based test which is used for a baseline, and clinically we-ve used it in cases of head injuries and concussion so we know where a players baseline is in order to safely return them to play following a head injury.
We-ve also had cardiac screening again this year which is a really important test.
The cardiologist Dr Dave O-Donnell and his team have been in and that test is to identify congenital changes of the heart. It can also be training related changes to the heart.
But the key factor there is to pick up any congenital defects in the heart because as most people know, there have been unfortunate instances of sudden cardiac death in athletes, and this is a key screening test to identify players who could be at risk of that.”
Stay tuned for part two tomorrow, which includes an exclusive video of Alex Terra taking part in Cybex testing at La Trobe University’s movement laboratory.
