Hiya boys and girls, hope everyone is recovering from a somewhat dull Saturday. I meant to write this a week back when the actual article came out but 'lazy' is the only excuse that comes to mind. Now I am no doctor, and nor will I ever be one but as I've written before, I work in the football industry. In fact I had a player training with a certain London premier league team earlier this year and I was there as his translator/company representative.
The reason why I mentioned this is because just by chance at this club there was an Asian physio who had previously worked at Roma. We had dinner during my time there because of our similar heritage and he explained something very interesting to me.
He said-
England is very unique in the way training/games is run and how the players are kept in shape. Training is not any longer or shorter than any other country but they just train harder during the 90-180 minutes. This perhaps stems from the British mentality of 'balls to the wall' when it comes to footy. The other unique thing is that due to the climate the grounds are much softer than you find elsewhere in Europe. Because of this when you turn, or run in general the ground digs deeper into the ground thus requiring more strength to push, twist and so on. Players don't realise the strain they are putting on their hamstrings and muscles around their knees. That's why you see a lot of players that have come in from foreign leagues burn out in their first season in England. He said even in his team that most frequent players in the physio room with muscle strains are foreigners. The british born/raised players are used to the conditions so the muscles are also in tact to cope with the conditions.
Now with Ji being a young player, especially from Asia where muscle development is definitely not a priority, it really didn't surprise me that something like this came out. I have seen Ji play a number of times in the past and I do think he's a talent, however he will take definitely a season before he starts producing in my opinion. This is why I am so looking forward to the return of Fraizer as I think he can be that spark upfront to unsettle defenses. Also I think Noble looks an enthusiastic player who has bit of goal scoring wit to him.
Hope this helps in explaining the Ji situation, although with the SAFC medical record I could completely be wrong, perhaps they don't feed them enough or make them walk home after training, who knows...
The reason why I mentioned this is because just by chance at this club there was an Asian physio who had previously worked at Roma. We had dinner during my time there because of our similar heritage and he explained something very interesting to me.
He said-
England is very unique in the way training/games is run and how the players are kept in shape. Training is not any longer or shorter than any other country but they just train harder during the 90-180 minutes. This perhaps stems from the British mentality of 'balls to the wall' when it comes to footy. The other unique thing is that due to the climate the grounds are much softer than you find elsewhere in Europe. Because of this when you turn, or run in general the ground digs deeper into the ground thus requiring more strength to push, twist and so on. Players don't realise the strain they are putting on their hamstrings and muscles around their knees. That's why you see a lot of players that have come in from foreign leagues burn out in their first season in England. He said even in his team that most frequent players in the physio room with muscle strains are foreigners. The british born/raised players are used to the conditions so the muscles are also in tact to cope with the conditions.
Now with Ji being a young player, especially from Asia where muscle development is definitely not a priority, it really didn't surprise me that something like this came out. I have seen Ji play a number of times in the past and I do think he's a talent, however he will take definitely a season before he starts producing in my opinion. This is why I am so looking forward to the return of Fraizer as I think he can be that spark upfront to unsettle defenses. Also I think Noble looks an enthusiastic player who has bit of goal scoring wit to him.
Hope this helps in explaining the Ji situation, although with the SAFC medical record I could completely be wrong, perhaps they don't feed them enough or make them walk home after training, who knows...
