Hello Eagles fans!
The day after a game means rest and recovery for the players, but for the physiotherapists it means hard work. Our five-man team of myself, Thomas Stubner, Koichi Kurokawa, Patrick Kux and Carlos Sternecker are working pretty much non-stop, particularly with the high training workload at the moment.
Active recovery and massages
A player's recovery process following a match looks like this: straight after the game on Tuesday, we spoke to the players to find out whether they'd picked up a knock or had any other issues. On Wednesday morning, together with the fitness coaches Markus Murrer and Martin Spohrer, we set out which players require what treatment. We presented the recovery plan to the coaching staff and then started the process with cycling, stretching and Blackroll, which lasted for around an hour.
A rigorous programme
After that, the players come to us one after another and are treated for between 45 and 60 minutes. If the muscles have become a little bit blown up after exercise, we squeeze that out again. That obviously hurts a bit but it helps massively. Timothy Chandler, David Abraham, Nicolai Müller, Deji Beyreuther and Lucas Torró were with me today on the massage table. Five to six players is normal. It's a rigorous programme and sometimes my fingers hurt in the evening, but they've got used to it. By the end, the players have recovered enough so that they can again take part in intense, top-level sporting activity the following day.
Before I sign off, I'd like to send our best wishes to our colleague Thorsten Ammann, who normally works alongside our physios but couldn't make the trip to the USA. See you soon!
Yours,
Maik
