• SERGIO R. VIÑAS

    @sergiorovi

Saturday, March 14, 2020 - 02:09

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  • Reportage. The most tense hours in the heart of Real Madrid: "Guys, be very careful"
  • News. All sections of Real Madrid, quarantined by the positive of Trey Thompkins, of the basketball team

This weekend, no First Division team has scheduled training sessions at its facilities. Eleven of them, in fact, have already decided not to have them for at least the next two weeks, following the recommendations of the RFEF. The other half of the clubs have summoned their players for Monday or Tuesday, but most likely the majority will never rejoin. Ultimately, sooner or later, all teams will stop conducting collective training. As with the rest of the population, footballers must also comply with general recommendations: take extreme hygiene measures and stay at home. The coronavirus has brought teleworking to soccer.

Athlete restrictions vary from club to club. Real Madrid players are forced to remain isolated in their homes due to the positive of basketball player Trey Thompkins . Leganés CEO Martín Ortega has also been infected, although the club has reported that the players have not been in direct contact with him. Even so, the order they have received, under threat of a fine, is not to leave the Community of Madrid, a guideline that also applies to Getafe, despite the fact that no positive results are known. At the moment, there is no professional soccer player in Spain that has been diagnosed.

The official horizon is that the competitions have been suspended for two weeks, but football has already become aware that the break could be much longer, with the latent doubt whether it will be possible or not to end the season. Given this situation, the physical trainers and medical services of the professional teams work against the clock to design personalized training plans for their soccer players, with the aim of keeping them in good shape for when the competition resumes.

Of course, it is not the same in some teams as in others. While the majority of footballers have sports furniture at home (treadmills, ergonomic bicycles, weight machines ...), in the most modest this does not happen. "One possibility that we are evaluating is to send cardio machines to the players, either from the club, or from renting companies, and other materials such as rubbers so that they can carry out functional training," explains Javier Vidal , Bordalás' right hand man at Getafe , perhaps the club that places the most emphasis on physical preparation. Both in the Azulón team and in the rest, there are still many uncertainties about how to deal with an unprecedented situation in all areas.

Reduce calories

"The main thing is that they maintain muscle shape and tone. And that can be achieved by training from home and, those who can, going running in the immediate vicinity, "says Pedro Manonelles , president of the Spanish Federation of Sports Medicine (FEMEDE) and a practicing sports doctor. Vidal, on the other hand, is more pessimistic and believes that footballers "are going to lose their shape, because they lack the tools to maintain it if the situation lasts for weeks." Diet is also an important aspect, as the physical activity that they are going to do at home hardly maintains its intensity. "It would be convenient," says Manonelles, "to reduce the consumption of especially caloric foods."

Current technological tools (heart rate monitors, vests equipped with GPS, etc ...) allow physical and medical trainers to control the physical activity of footballers, even if it has to be at a distance. The biggest problem may be for players who are facing recovery processes from severe injuries, who in some phases of treatment do need very specific equipment. However, if they are not infected, they could develop it on the club's premises, taking extreme hygiene and precaution measures in the face of the pandemic.

But since there is no evil that does not come for good, there can also be a positive counterpart to this forced and unwanted isolation. Gaizka Garitano , Athletic coach, pointed it out this Friday: "A small respite of a few days will come in handy, especially for the players who have accumulated the most minutes." “We are in an era with a large accumulation of matches and physical wear. An active rest period without bruises and without stressful situations is going to be positive for soccer players ”.

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