James Clegg: Fit & Firing

Keeping every player fit, from the Academy to the First Team, is a challenging job filled with pressure and Head Physiotherapist James Clegg is at the forefront of ensuring every member of the squad is fit and firing.

Originally from Leeds, Clegg and Hampshire’s medical department can only see positive results in their work if player availability is strong, and creating higher availability rates across three competitions assists successful club performances.

This is something a high-flying Premier League Football club managed to achieve when they accomplished the unthinkable in 2016.

“When Leicester City won the Premier League a lot of things went right for them and one of those was a low injury rate so using that as a potential model for us is something we will be looking to achieve in the coming seasons.”

It’s now been nearly two months since the season came to a close and after their short break; the players are back training and working hard towards a positive campaign in 2021:

“We’ve just come back from a four-week break, it’s good for the lads to have that downtime both physically and mentally.

“They’re now starting a physical programme, both in the gym and on field running, after Christmas their programme’s will rely a lot more on skill.”

Whilst this time of year is known as a ‘Pre-Pre-Season’, the players’ will go through a series of testing over the next few weeks for Clegg to identify how they can get that extra one percent from them:

“We screen each player in this period we’re in and we’ll carry that out both generically and specifically to them. 

“This will be based on their previous injury history or any areas that they have identified, we’re trying to look into those extra one percenters to see if we can alleviate or improve upon certain functions in their body.”