So what do we know about his latest injury?

Injury after injury really isn't good for someone so young. I can't see him having a long career if he keeps this up. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Injuries are holding him back. if he'd seen some continuity this season he'd have been a[n even] better player now - good enough to force Dunga to pick him for the the World Cup ahead of that overweight Adriano (still, he has 12 goals in 20 games, and remains our top scorer *rolls eyes*)

I don't think it's him who's terribly injury prone though. more like it's our medical staff, fitness coaches and MilanLab that suck. too many injuries have happened to too many of our players. it's just not normal.

MilanLab is overrated.

As far as I have read, MilanLab have no call on the players being called to the team. Milan Lab's famous system basically predicts a probability for injury. So Meerseman (?) can make a suggestion that Player X has a chance for an injury. He cannot categorically state that the player not be played, that decision is upto the coach and the staff. So it's quite possible that Pato wasn't really fit to start and we were desperate.

Second, from what I've read and perhaps Bluey will know more, as a coach Leo's training involves a lot more ball work, as opposed to Carlo or Jose who splits a lot of time between physical and tactical work. I think the training levels and physical conditioning also have a lot to do. And if your training doesn't focus as much on physical conditioning, then it's going to affect you a lot over the season's course.

Bluey, thoughts?

The problem with injuries dates back to way before Leo came... it's something else IMO.

We've had injuries that were mostly expected. Dida's back, Maldini's knee, Nesta's back. The rest of it was your usual strains and pulls. And they were all mostly the old players.

THis is weird. Very strange. And I don't think our staff have changed that much since the days when injury was not a problem. And it's not like physios etc go through periods of bad form or complacency either.

The players will still put in the appropriate ammount of physical work, we have supposed 'professionals' who make up the schedule of how much physical work should be done in every training session.

And it's not just the old guys who were getting injured a lot Jack, Kaka couldn't recuperate from his knee until he went to Brazil to consult the NT doctor, same goes for Ronaldo and his muscle strain before busting up his knee again. Bonera is another player that would classify under the youngage group of our team but he spent last season out and most of this season. It's an ongoing list of screw ups by our incompetent medical staff

And yes at the end of the day the medical team will be the ones advising Leo whether player A is ready or not to play a game and how much minutes he is ready for. Leo doesn't just decide on a whim to play a player that is still injured because that's what he wants.

Milan Lab is another thing, it's for predicting injuries, you're right about that, but when the injuries do occur the medical staff turn a minor injury into a full blown chronic injury in a matter of days

I didn't see the latest Pato incident, as it was an early morning game for me here and I was just waking up and tuned in just after that, and the Napoli goal. Hamstring injuries can take a long time to fully heal, so my guess is that he was rushed back too quickly. The best thing now is to hope we can keep our position for the next few weeks and hopefully he, like Nesta, will be able to return for those final tough 3 matches.

Lieven Maesschalk - Physio/doctor (belgium)

Jean Pierre Meerssemen- Surgeon/doctor (belgium)

Massimo Manara- Physio/doctor (italian)

Danielle Tognacini- Fitness Program Coach (italian)



These people are essentially responsible for our famous Milan Lab. There are alot more medical staff but these people run the show.


When a player gets injured this is the order the healing process takes place in:

Merse (analysis)-->Maesschalk (healing)-->Manara (strengthing)--><-- Merse (analysis)-->Tognacini (match fitness)-->Leo(training)


Now in theory with our top training facilities and our top medical staff, we should have no problems. However, we do and here is where the problems lie.

When players get injured, we tend more to use methods that are able to make the player return to match fitness asap. They may not always be the best methods or the safest, but thats what we have done. We have done that with Kaka for years.

Everytime he had hurt his knee, we had treated it about 50% and then threw him back on the field. As you have all seen with this method its a double edged sword. It helps us in the short run but can backfire in the long run. Now I don't doubt Pato is being treated the same way.

----

In regards to your question jack on fitness. It really doesn't make a difference as they are both equally effective.

Leo does not design the fitness program, Tognacini does. Leo might say he prefers one way to another and Togna will design it according to that.


I'll give you an example:

Get a group of 6 people and set up a grid of 20x20 yards. Play 3v3 possesion games with the objective of 10 passes is 1 point.

Play 4 min, rest 2 min.

Do this for about 5 reps.


A few days later:

Do some running drills like sprints with a similar work:rest ratio. Run 2 laps, walk 1.

See which one gets you tired faster.

Some players tire faster in the first drill as they dont' have as quick agility or ball skill to keep up so they have to do twice as much work. Some players can't keep up in the running drills as they don't have the physicallity to handle the severe stress of anaerobic excercises.


Which one works better for our players? Who knows. Only a person on the inside who sees daily training sessions would know,.

This post has been edited by Bluesummers: Mar 24 2010, 10:19 AM

Are you an MD ? Because, I'm not sure if what you stated was a fact or just a hypothesis on how you consider the show was being run.

Also, reading through your post, I get the feeling that these players are machines and not human beings who have physical limitations.

I'm not an MD and its not exactly the detailed process but its essentially like that. Milan have something like 10 medical staff in total.


Also when you pay somebody 9m a season, your going to do everything possible to make sure he's on the field at all times. European football is called the meat shop for a reason.

This post has been edited by Bluesummers: Mar 24 2010, 08:38 PM

interesting blue, where did get all this info? just curious

I took a trip to the NSCAA internation convention in Philly in January. Milan had a booth there and Milanlab was part of it. I asked the guy basic questions about how the facilities are and stuff like that.

The guy said we have one of the top 5 medical facilities in the world of football and our doctors messhachlk and meerseman are internationally known. He also spoke about specific process we use that other clubs don't know or don't use etc etc..

I also did some reading up on the training methods of carlo over the last 5 years and there was huge talk on MilanLab and how it works; I think I posted an article on this forum or maybe it was another one I dont' quite remember on how we use a special hidden fitness regiment during off season to make sure our players are top quality.



Anyways, I don't have proof of it and It could be changed. I just know thats what happened during carlo era.

This post has been edited by Bluesummers: Mar 25 2010, 08:05 AM

So how long will he be out for?