Every day that the footballer spends in confinement is an added headache for the physical trainers, who watch with concern as performance parameters are falling. that players deliver in their weekly evaluations. “If we go to the end of the sixty days of confinement (it would take place on May 13), it would be a very long period and the rehabilitation could become severe ”, assumes the head of FC Barcelona’s physical training, Fran Soto, who stresses that “our athletes are not used to stopping for so long”.
The main problem they are encountering is that the players are doing maintenance work with nonspecific exercises, i.e. very general work, that does not adapt to the needs of a footballer. First, because most guidelines for working without the ball have been developed, and second, because they are done alone and at home. There is also another added factor that makes it difficult to work in the confinement: not being able to go out to do outdoor activities such as running in the mountains or the beach, playing futvoley with friends or other similar team sports, which allow you to complement the work of maintenance.
These deficiencies in physical activity and specific exercises have begun to take their toll on the physical state of many players -also mental-, as observed in the last evaluations. In fact, the latest indicative calculations that are being carried out in the club is that the majority of players will return to the activity in certain precarious conditions: it is calculated around 30% of their ideal state at this point in the season. That means that there will be an exhaustive work ahead by the technicians to recover 70% during the month of the rehabilitation before the competition begins.
A work of rehabilitation that appears very complicated and with many obstacles. Firstly, due to the protocol required by LaLiga and the RFEF to avoid risks of contagion of the coronavirus -training alone and later in small groups- and secondly, during the time of re-adaptation, friendly matches cannot be held, as is customary in any preseason of summer.
In such a situation, the risk of injury multiplies exponentially and even more considering that the first game to be played will already be of a high mental demand as the LaLiga title is at stake, since there will only be eleven days left to play.
Where all the experts agree is on the need to return to activity as soon as possible, although prioritizing the footballer’s health above all else. Extending inactivity for more than two months would already be completely counterproductive and would put at risk the possibility of reactivating the competition, as recognized by the club itself.
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