New LFC doctor Brukner: Torres injuries couldn’t have been prevented

[bonesman]

Liverpool’s new head doctor Peter Brukner believes Fernando Torres’s recent injury problems couldn’t have been prevented by better medical care at the club. Brukner, a pioneer of sports medicine back in Australia where he has been the Socceroos head doctor, will take up the role of Liverpool’s head of sports medicine and sports science after the World Cup. Harry Kewell’s personal manager Bernie Mandic blamed the Reds medical department for the Australian winger’s injury nightmare at Anfield saying Kewell lost “lost three and a half years of his career at Liverpool,” but Brukner believes in the case of Torres, nothing more could have been done.

 

Speaking to ESPN Soccernet:

“I doubt the Torres knee problems could’ve been prevented, it’s one of those unlucky things. It’s very hard to comment on individuals, but preventing injuries is a terribly important thing – the good players have got to be out there, if they’re injured they’re no use to anyone. I’m not one to look into the past, but obviously Liverpool have been concerned about their injuries and it’s one of reasons that prompted them to upgrade their services.”

 

Brukner believes that the Premier League has fallen behind somewhat in term’s of sports medicine and that Liverpool have realised they have needed to do something about it:

“They (Liverpool) realised that Premier League clubs are a bit behind in medical care and the way they look after players so it’s a chance to come in and improve things. It’s interesting, I guess it’s not a big part of the British football culture and maybe a bit of a lack of understanding in terms of how sports medicine has progressed in the last decade or two.There’s a lack of awareness around the place but some of the clubs are starting to realise there’s a better way to do things.”

 

The Australian has come to England for the last month of the season to see how the Liverpool medical department works so he can hit the ground running when he takes up his job in July. Let’s hope that he can keep Torres & Co fit.

 

Posted on Thursday, 29th April 2010 by David Tully

 

http://live4liverpool.com/view-from-the-kop/brukner-torres-injuries-couldnt-have-been-prevented

 

Talks the talk doesn't he.. Just hope he can keep the squad fit especially Torres. Loves himself tho the bolded bit cracked me up, what dyou reckon have we found ourselves the mourinho of sports science ..

Edited April 29, 2010 by bonesman

[The Party Boy]

He's a cunt but he's our cunt etc

[Guest The Chimp]

This is a really, really good appointment. I know of this fella, and he is top notch.

[Newport]

I just hope his actions are as good as his words are.

[Paul]

Does this mean Mark Waller is going or is this guy coming in over his head? Also, who appointed him? Have I missed this story already or is it as out of the blue as it seems to be?

[lifetime fan]

From memory he was appointed by the club not Rafa but he agreed with the appointment. Not sure what will happen with Doc Waller, can't see the players being too pleased if he's being fucked off though.

[tobycatz]

Aint this the fella who makes frozen pizza?

[Guest Pistonbroke]

Aint this the fella who makes frozen pizza?

 

That's Dr Oetker. Lives in the same city as myself. His pizza's taste like shit.

[lifetime fan]

Aint this the fella who makes frozen pizza?

 

Ice cream you knob!

[El Rojo]

 

"I'll have Gerrard and Torres back in a jiffy, the soft flaming bastards."

[tobycatz]

Ice cream your knob!

 

No thanks ya kinky fucker.

[lifetime fan]

No thanks ya kinky fucker.

 

Chilli it first and then put the ice cream on, its such a relief its better than an orgasm.

 

Er, so I've been told.

[StevieH]

'LFC players will see big changes' - Liverpool FC

 

Liverpool players will notice big changes to training next season as the club's new sports science guru gets to work.

 

 

Dr Peter Brukner hopes he can reduce the number of stars visiting the treatment room by introducing methods used in other sports.

 

The likes of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres will be asked to complete 15 minutes of injury prevention before every training session from next season.

 

Another innovation coming to Melwood is the increased use of "GPS systems" to monitor each player's fitness.

 

"The players will notice an immediate difference come the start of the 2010-11 season," said Dr Brukner, who takes up his role as Head of Sports Medicine and Sports Science after travelling with Australia to the World Cup.

 

"Liverpool's set-up is already the equal of any Premier League club. I want to now take it to the next level and make it the benchmark in world football for sports medicine and sports science. I'm quite confident we'll do that.

 

"Our plan is for the players to do a 15-minute session before they start training. This will be purely on injury prevention - working on hamstrings, groins, thighs, calves and so on.

 

"The other thing we'll be doing more of is monitoring their general well-being, their general health and their workload.

 

"There's a lot of GPS systems now and they're not just for cars. It'll be like having a sat nav on every player! We'll be able to modify their programmes depending on how much they play and how quickly they recover.

 

"It's our responsibility to sell that to the players and I don't think that will be difficult because they don't want to be injured."

 

On top of all this, the squad will be divided into groups depending on their injury history. Extra work will then be done on specific body areas within each group.

 

The question supporters will want to know is whether Dr Brukner's techniques - which have earned him a reputation as one of the world's leading sports physicians - will prevent the kind of injury crisis which undermined 2009-10.

 

"You can't stop all injuries," he said. "There are certain injuries which are inevitable - like when someone gets a kick or something.

 

"But I think we can certainly reduce the amount of injuries - particularly what we call soft tissue injuries. Things like hamstring muscle, groin muscle, calf muscle and tears."

 

Australia is seen by many as the world leader in sports science and medicine.

 

Dr Brukner has been key in carving out this reputation over the last 25 years, establishing the country's largest sports medicine clinic.

 

His CV includes spells with the national swimming, hockey and Olympic teams - and he believes football can learn from these sports.

 

"Football is probably a little bit behind the cutting edge that's out there in other parts of the world," said Dr Brukner.

 

"Maybe that's a cultural thing with football clubs - the traditional set-up has been the same for many years. Other sports in other countries have maybe gone ahead a bit. The idea now is to get the best of what's out there around the world and bring it to Liverpool."

 

Dr Brukner's appointment followed a worldwide search by Liverpool officials.

 

"It came out of the blue," he said. "I was approached by someone doing the headhunting for Liverpool. They somehow finished up in Melbourne and I got a phone call to ask if I was interested.

 

"Initially I said, 'Thanks, but it's probably a bit early from my family's point of view.' My son is still at school and I thought maybe in a couple of years.

 

"But Liverpool were persistent and it's a very attractive job, a real challenge. Eventually we sat down as a family, had a meeting about it and decided to give it a crack."

 

Dr Brukner spent a month at Melwood at the back end of 2009-10 to acclimatise to his new surroundings.

 

He added: "This was Liverpool's suggestion and I think it's proved a really good one. I've seen the procedures and the structures and met everyone. Now when I arrive in pre-season I can hit the ground running.

 

"It's an amazing place, there's no doubt about that. I've always followed football and I lived in England for three years many years ago.

 

"There are not many clubs in the world bigger than Liverpool Football Club and I'm honoured to be here."

 

First up for Dr Brukner is a trip to South Africa as head doctor for the Socceroos.

 

And our new appointment is relishing the prospect of facing England should one team finish first and the other second in their respective groups.

 

"That's a tantalising prospect. It will be the football version of The Ashes," he said.

 

"But no, we've got a really tough group - Germany, Serbia and Ghana.

 

"If we can get through the group we've done really, really well. We haven't got a star-studied team but we've got a great work ethic. There's a great team spirit."

 

Author: Jimmy Rice

[Original202]

"Our plan is for the players to do a 15-minute session before they start training. This will be purely on injury prevention - working on hamstrings, groins, thighs, calves and so on.

 

What do we do at the moment? This is basic stuff which we used to do at school!

 

Something has been going wrong somewhere in training as the number of muscle injuries can't just be coincidental.

 

I hope he's one of our most important signings this summer. And he probably will be if the owners have their way.

[JohnnyH]

I heard they are using that GPS system at Chelsea also, but it wasn't the club doctor who requested it but John Terrys wife.

[piscinin]

"Our plan is for the players to do a 15-minute session before they start training. This will be purely on injury prevention - working on hamstrings, groins, thighs, calves and so on.

 

What do we do at the moment? This is basic stuff which we used to do at school!

 

Something has been going wrong somewhere in training as the number of muscle injuries can't just be coincidental.

 

I hope he's one of our most important signings this summer. And he probably will be if the owners have their way.

 

I thought the same but there's been a lot of research in the last couple of years about "warm-ups" which are specific to playing position and injury history.

[gkmacca]

 

What's that, Skippy? Nando's gone and twisted his ankle? On international duty? Stupid bloody bastard! And what else, Skip? Gerrard's body language is out of sorts? I'll soon sort THAT out with a bloody strong slap in the mouth! Bloody soft Shiela! And something else, Skip? Ashley Cole tried to do WHAT to you?? Hang on, mate - I'll just get me shot gun!

[mattyq]

Very good GK

[Unrighteous]

The guy is definitely talking the talk... lets see how many injuries we have next season.

[gkmacca]

 

Okay, mates. So there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that we are now 100% free of injuries. The bad news is that we no longer have any players.

[navbasi]

"Our plan is for the players to do a 15-minute session before they start training. This will be purely on injury prevention - working on hamstrings, groins, thighs, calves and so on.

 

What do we do at the moment? This is basic stuff which we used to do at school!

 

Something has been going wrong somewhere in training as the number of muscle injuries can't just be coincidental.

 

I hope he's one of our most important signings this summer. And he probably will be if the owners have their way.

 

I just thought.. "Is that just making sure that the players do a stretching routine before training..." But no doubt it's probably a bit more technical than that!!

[Dicko]

The one Rafa was after ended up at Utd didn't he?

Rick Parry was on the ball with that as well apparently.

[Original202]

I just thought.. "Is that just making sure that the players do a stretching routine before training..." But no doubt it's probably a bit more technical than that!!

 

I'm sure it is, it just seemed a strange thing to read as it's something that sounds so simple.

[Rex Banner]

This guy has a very good reputation in Australia, he's pretty much recognised as one of the best going around and Australia does do a lot of sports science stuff a lot of people go to Uni for it over here.

 

There has been many cases I've heard of on the news when sports players go to him for special treatment, Aussie rules footy players get a lot of soft tissue injuries so a lot of work is done over here to prevent them and get guys back quicker.

[Trumo]

It's probably a good thing that we are putting greater emphasis on prevention rather than cure. Devising fitness plans for and stressing their importance to each player is a good idea, because it's then the player's responsibility to ensure they follow it, otherwise it's their own fault if they spend ages in the treatment room for avoidable injuries. If this guy is a typical straight-talking Aussie, no doubt he'll find the motivational words.