Hello everyone,
Let's start with the positives during this Christmas period!
Enner has recovered extremely well and very quickly. He had his first training session last Thursday and played against Stoke City.
Let's start with the positives during this Christmas period!
Enner has recovered extremely well and very quickly. He had his first training session last Thursday and played against Stoke City.
Dimitri Payet has come back to us very well after a period of rest and has started the active rehab.
The first signs are that he is progressing very well. Dimi is working hard, started running and is working with the ball without problems. We hope he could be back in full training in a few weeks.
Manuel Lanzini has suffered a significant muscle injury that will take time. He has made good progress, feels much better and will have a control scan on Monday to evaluate if we can push on. We hope he will play some part over the Christmas period.
Victor Moses and Winston Reid have both injured their hamstrings and have started their recovery processes. They are both on track to recover in the four to six weeks we originally anticipated.
Diafra had an operation last Saturday which went well. After four weeks we can accelerate the rehab and we will have a better view on when he is going to be back on the pitch.
Diafra is currently in a period of immobilisation and minimal rehab, giving the body time to heal.
Just a general point on injuries, how you avoid one is a million dollar question! Every injury is unique in many aspects and to predict when a player will return to play is similar.
Working in, with and for a great football club means you always try to push as hard as you can and bring injured players back as quickly as possible in a safe way.
Especially at this time of year in England, the Premier League is very demanding and all top-class athletes are performing on the edge. They are on the front line giving it 100 per cent and if you work for a football club, that's what you do, you do the same, you also give 100 per cent.
Stijn Vandenbroucke,
Head of Medical and Sports Science