Head of Medical and Sports Science Stijn Vandenbroucke issues his latest update – in association with Spire Roding Hospital...
Hello everyone.
We will start this week with the positive news of Andre Ayew’s return to first-team action as a substitute in the EFL Cup win over Chelsea on Wednesday.
It was a very intense and physical demanding game in which we gave a great performance, and a few of the boys got some bumps and bruises.
We are happy that Andre has made a quick recovery, but when a player returns from injury he is always a work in progress.
We have to keep doing things in the right way at the right time and the congested schedule this week is a challenge for the whole team, especially players coming back from injury.
Andre spent some time in France during his rehab, where he played previously, and we worked closely with the medical department at Olympique Marseille. It was nice to have that cooperation.
At the end of the day, though, it is down to the player to put in the hard work, not just in training and rehab but 24/7, work hard and recover hard.
The most crucial phase is the next few games and training weeks. Finding a balance between training, progressive 'game time' and recovery is crucial in completing the work in progress.
The next positive is that Aaron Cresswell keeps improving and progressing well.
It's not easy to re-introduce a defender from injury, because it is not often that you can play a defender
for 30 minutes and re-introduce him gradually, but once again the key is finding the good balance between games, training and recovery.
Diafra Sakho has been training all week with the Under-23s in controlled but hard sessions. Diaf is in the final stages of his own pre-season training schedule and he will join the first-team squad next week.
He will train for several weeks with the first team before he will be re-introduced gradually into games.
Arthur Masuaku is a natural athlete and is strong. He is making great progress in his rehab from the knee injury he suffered against Accrington Stanley in August. We expect Arthur to return to training some time in November.
Sam Byram was given a few days off between the phases of his rehab from his hamstring injury. He has returned and is working well in the gym at Rush Green, but it will be a while until he is available for selection again.
Andy Carroll and Gokhan Tore continue to work on their rehabilitation at Rush Green.
Stijn Vandenbroucke
Head of Medical and Sports Science