The solution to our injury problems, well hopefully...

Liverpool players will notice big changes to training next season as the club's new sports science guru gets to work.

 Dr Peter Brukner hopes he can reduce the number of stars visiting the treatment room by introducing methods used in other sports.

The likes of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres will be asked to complete 15 minutes of injury prevention before every training session from next season.

Another innovation coming to Melwood is the increased use of "GPS systems" to monitor each player's fitness.

"The players will notice an immediate difference come the start of the 2010-11 season," said Dr Brukner, who takes up his role as Head of Sports Medicine and Sports Science after travelling with Australia to the World Cup.

"Liverpool's set-up is already the equal of any Premier League club. I want to now take it to the next level and make it the benchmark in world football for sports medicine and sports science. I'm quite confident we'll do that.

"Our plan is for the players to do a 15-minute session before they start training. This will be purely on injury prevention - working on hamstrings, groins, thighs, calves and so on.

"The other thing we'll be doing more of is monitoring their general well-being, their general health and their workload.

"There's a lot of GPS systems now and they're not just for cars. It'll be like having a sat nav on every player! We'll be able to modify their programmes depending on how much they play and how quickly they recover.

"It's our responsibility to sell that to the players and I don't think that will be difficult because they don't want to be injured."

On top of all this, the squad will be divided into groups depending on their injury history. Extra work will then be done on specific body areas within each group.

The question supporters will want to know is whether Dr Brukner's techniques - which have earned him a reputation as one of the world's leading sports physicians - will prevent the kind of injury crisis which undermined 2009-10.

"You can't stop all injuries," he said. "There are certain injuries which are inevitable - like when someone gets a kick or something.

"But I think we can certainly reduce the amount of injuries - particularly what we call soft tissue injuries. Things like hamstring muscle, groin muscle, calf muscle and tears."

Australia is seen by many as the world leader in sports science and medicine.

Dr Brukner has been key in carving out this reputation over the last 25 years, establishing the country's largest sports medicine clinic.

His CV includes spells with the national swimming, hockey and Olympic teams - and he believes football can learn from these sports.

"Football is probably a little bit behind the cutting edge that's out there in other parts of the world," said Dr Brukner.

"Maybe that's a cultural thing with football clubs - the traditional set-up has been the same for many years. Other sports in other countries have maybe gone ahead a bit. The idea now is to get the best of what's out there around the world and bring it to Liverpool."

Dr Brukner's appointment followed a worldwide search by Liverpool officials.

"It came out of the blue," he said. "I was approached by someone doing the headhunting for Liverpool. They somehow finished up in Melbourne and I got a phone call to ask if I was interested.

"Initially I said, 'Thanks, but it's probably a bit early from my family's point of view.' My son is still at school and I thought maybe in a couple of years.

"But Liverpool were persistent and it's a very attractive job, a real challenge. Eventually we sat down as a family, had a meeting about it and decided to give it a crack."

Dr Brukner spent a month at Melwood at the back end of 2009-10 to acclimatise to his new surroundings.

He added: "This was Liverpool's suggestion and I think it's proved a really good one. I've seen the procedures and the structures and met everyone. Now when I arrive in pre-season I can hit the ground running.

"It's an amazing place, there's no doubt about that. I've always followed football and I lived in England for three years many years ago.

"There are not many clubs in the world bigger than Liverpool Football Club and I'm honoured to be here."

First up for Dr Brukner is a trip to South Africa as head doctor for the Socceroos.

And our new appointment is relishing the prospect of facing England should one team finish first and the other second in their respective groups.

"That's a tantalising prospect. It will be the football version of The Ashes," he said.

"But no, we've got a really tough group - Germany, Serbia and Ghana.

"If we can get through the group we've done really, really well. We haven't got a star-studied team but we've got a great work ethic. There's a great team spirit."

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/lfc-players-will-see-big-changes

Hopefully this will decrease our injury problems.

Interesting stuff. If it works, then happy days. I can't but think that it may cause more damage in the long-term though & if it really works, why has it taken so long to enter the Footballing world. Anyway, welcome to the club Doc. Hope you can sort out our injury problems.

If this bit is true I'll be a happy chappy:

"But I think we can certainly reduce the amount of injuries - particularly what we call soft tissue injuries. Things like hamstring muscle, groin muscle, calf muscle and tears."

These last couple of years we've been dogged by that kind of injury, disrupting not only individual players fitness, but also at times the team as a whole, with players so often in and out of the side.

Interesting stuff. If it works, then happy days. I can't but think that it may cause more damage in the long-term though & if it really works, why has it taken so long to enter the Footballing world. Anyway, welcome to the club Doc. Hope you can sort out our injury problems.

This is good news - why do you think it will cause damage in the long term though.

We've tried horse placenta why not give an Aussie quack a go, seems to know his stuff, hopefully it will be beneficial for the club as a whole.

Thanks for a good news.
Really hope this will help us improve a player injury trouble we facing for long time.
I believe injures on several players cost us seriously.
Now let's start to see our red machine enjoy their crushing around.

Sorry for my poor English.

15 minute injury prevention. Is that not just stretching and light cardio. Sounds like a kickboxing warm up routine. Surely football is not that far behind

"Initially I said, 'Thanks, but it's probably a bit early from my family's point of view.' My son is still at school and I thought maybe in a couple of years.

"But Liverpool were persistent and it's a very attractive job, a real challenge. Eventually we sat down as a family, had a meeting about it and decided to give it a crack."

Roughly translated as:

I thought sod that, why would i want to go back to shitty weather and whinging poms? My sons a perfect excuse, im not going anywhere. But, Liverpool offered a shed load more cash than i can earn in oz. So, i put my foot down and figured i'd put up with more shitty weather, flat ale and whinging poms for a futher 3 years. 

The bloke is a genius. No doubts he'll be a big boost to the team.

Why haven't we been doing this for years if it does actually work? I'm praying that it does!!

15 minute injury prevention. Is that not just stretching and light cardio. Sounds like a kickboxing warm up routine. Surely football is not that far behind

It certainly does sound like that, doesn't it.

A light routine, tailor made for each player, with the intensity being varied.

I can't remember where I read about the AC Milan sports training academy, but I think they are leaders at the moment, with other clubs starting to "copy" them, although naturally the routines will vary.

Great new this - last season was the worst I can remember for injuries since Souness was in charge, and his injury list was only bad because he had players kicking lumps out of each other in training.

Good news i guess- lets hope it works!

We can beat anyone with a fit squad!

There was a routine i went through during my state tennis days which were based on this guy.

It's not just stretching and jogging, it combines all your muscles in one as well as breathing techniques to get oxygen flowing etc. It helps flexibility and muscle strengths when dealing with knocks, changing directions and hyper-extensions.

It is no coincidence that all my injuries started once i stopped doing these exercises. I have massive faith in this guy.

Honestly don't see how anything he'll do will have any effect on what happens on the pitch. There are too many variables and old injuries waiting to flair up. It's not as if anyone heals 100%. Not saying I don't want it to work, but I won't hold my breath.

i dont think anyone thought it was just light jogging but in Bushido we spend a lot of time doing almost pilate type muscle and core work along with stretching and making sure the muscles and joints are fully stretched and warmed up. I think AC Milan work on a similar idea. You would imagine all teams would look into it but obviously not. Think this guy will vastly improve our players flexibility and injury resistance

Liking the sound of that.

A potential masterstroke.

Hopefully he can make up for Harry Kewell

This is good news - why do you think it will cause damage in the long term though.

Well basically, unless i am mistakened, he will be putting them through certain training regimes on top of what they are currently doing. As everyone well knows, Premiership footballers train and play an awful lot as it is. If, however, they are going to be doing more training with the Doc, will that not possibly lead to more joint damage etc? Maybe i am misunderstanding the kind of exercises he will be doing with them.

We better keep Fernando now!

We might get a whole season from him now.

There was a routine I went through during my state tennis days which were based on this guy.

It's not just stretching and jogging, it combines all your muscles in one as well as breathing techniques to get oxygen flowing etc. It helps flexibility and muscle strengths when dealing with knocks, changing directions and hyper-extensions.

It is no coincidence that all my injuries started once I stopped doing these exercises. I have massive faith in this guy.

Refreshing to read that.

There was a routine I went through during my state tennis days which were based on this guy.

It's not just stretching and jogging, it combines all your muscles in one as well as breathing techniques to get oxygen flowing etc. It helps flexibility and muscle strengths when dealing with knocks, changing directions and hyper-extensions.

It is no coincidence that all my injuries started once I stopped doing these exercises. I have massive faith in this guy.

I seemed to have missed that post originally. It seems that i have mistakened the type of training he will be doing with the lads then. You have instilled me with great confidence in the guy, Crouchinho. Cheers mate.

Like the sound of this.

Welcome to the club Dr Brukner.

Bit late for Aurelio  but hopefully it will keep Nando, Gerrard and the other usual suspects on the park for longer peiods of next season.