Trainers worried about risk of injury to players

05 June 2020 - 13:28
By Gomolemo Motshwane
Bradley Grobler, who in October returned from a lengthy injury, heaped praise on Innocent Mchunu for his optimum fitness.
Image: Philip Maeta/Gallo Images Bradley Grobler, who in October returned from a lengthy injury, heaped praise on Innocent Mchunu for his optimum fitness.

As the Premier Soccer League (PSL) prepares to announce when teams will return to training, a major concern for fitness coaches will be to avoid multiple injuries on players.

PSL teams could make a return in the coming weeks after the government announced that professional sports could make a return to training under coronavirus lockdown level 3.

SuperSport United fitness trainer Innocent Mchunu said his main priority upon resumption will be to ensure players don't pick up injuries.

"The risk of injury will be there because the players haven't been on the pitch for a long time," Mchunu said.

"Players have been doing their best to maintain some level of fitness at home but of course true fitness can only be achieved on the pitch."

The conditioning coach from Mzumbe, in KZN, added that he would only be able to develop a training programme for the team once a date is set for teams to return to training.

"We can only plan when you know how much time we will have before we play. First we would need to know how much training time we will have before games begin," he felt.

The remaining 54 Absa Premiership games could be played next month. Clubs have on average seven games remaining.

As things stand in the current month of June, teams may possibly only have two or three weeks of training before games resume.

AmaZulu fitness trainer Josh Smith, in a previous interview with Sowetan, also said players would need at least a month to get fit again.

"I think players would need at least a month to prepare before games can resume. We can't just rush back because if we do we will risk injuries and it will also affect the quality of the performance on the pitch."