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
If we were to keep hold of Stevie and Nado for next season and this guy manages to keep both fit for the majority of the season then I would expect to at minimum make our way back into the top four.
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
If we were to keep hold of Stevie and Nado for next season and this guy manages to keep both fit for the majority of the season then I would expect to at minimum make our way back into the top four.
