by Matthew Skivington
The 2020/21 football season was a hectic one, to say the least. With seven of the premier league's top teams not getting a mid-week rest until Christmas. Coupled with the Euro 2020 tournament being rescheduled into 2021. This season was perhaps one of the busiest ever in top-flight football. This action-packed season was one to remember for the fans. With elite-level football taking place every day of the week, this season was exciting, to say the least. But the players, on the other hand, weren't as keen to see this packed schedule as the fans were. Players at the top level of the game go through strenuous training regimes. They are constantly expected to play at the peak of their ability, frequently inflicting strain on their bodies which could lead to later health issues. meaning that the workload on these players can be harsh. In a 7-day window between May 6 th and May 13 th, Manchester United was required to play 4 games. FIFPro, the self-proclaimed "global representative for professional footballers", stated that players in this position were playing 80% of their minutes in the "critical zone". This is the point at which players are most likely to receive injuries. In the premier league 20/21 season, 198 players missed games due to injury totalling 13,609 days missed. These missed days have cost premier league teams a combined £117.6m.
Football clubs have begun to combat this through the use of technology. Premier League teams Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leeds United were early adopters of GPS monitoring systems used to monitor live player performance data to avoid injuries. At the forefront of the new technologies is Northern Irish firm STATSports. STATSports have developed a wearable GPS that players can wear during training and matches. Live information can then be transferred to staff on the side-lines on iPads or bespoke wristwatches. Until recently, this information would only be accessible to staff after the game or training session, at which point, it could be too late. Barry Watters, head of sports science at STATSports, explained, "In these clubs, with so many fixtures coming up, time is going to be in short supply, so if it takes you two or three hours to turn the data into digestible insights, you've probably already missed your window." Of 20 teams in the Premier League, 14 teams have adopted the STATSports technology. Early adopters, Wolverhampton Wanderers, played a longer than usual season with 59 games in all competitions. Wolves used the technology to monitor players' work rates during training sessions to avoid them being overworked in matches. As a result, Wolves had the second-lowest number of injured players of all premier league teams throughout the season. With only 6 of the 20 best teams in England yet to adopt the technology. It shouldn't be long until we see all top-flight teams utilising similar technology to prevent injuries in players. In the past, we have seen players with amazing potential, such as Michael Owen, hindered heavily by injuries and never been able to showcase their true potential. A strong campaign in injury prevention through the use of new technologies could make that a thing of the past. And who knows, perhaps younger players might owe a successful career to these technologies.