Getting Players Ready for the Champions League Final

That time of year is approaching again, when two of the greatest club teams go head-to-head for the most prestigious prize in European football, the Champions League. Whilst us fans will be treated to atleast 90 minutes of (hopefully) world class performances from some of the worlds top athletes, one thing we never really get a view to is what is required behind the scenes to make sure those players actually make it on to the pitch.

It takes teams of doctors and physios thousands of hours across a season to make sure the likes of Jude Bellingham are able to battle it out for the trophy, but what do they actually do, and how do they actually do it?

One of the main things a physio team can do is to ensure that a player doesn’t overtrain, and thus ensues a never-ending balancing act. It’s all about finding the sweet spot where a player can develop as quickly as possible without meaningfully increasing their chance of injury. This is great and all, but again… how? Increasingly the answer to this lies with today’s incredible tracking technology, with products on the market able to gather metrics from distance run, average speed, and even rudimentary heart rates! Whilst these are the capabilities of the technology of today, at Footfalls and Heartbeats we’re hoping to add to the technology of tomorrow with respiration monitoring bands and gait-tracking socks and shoes capable of truly understanding how hard the body is working, and how quickly it fatigues.