Rehabilitation Drills for Injured Players

This section is more for players with injuries that will keep them from training or playing for three to four weeks, and players who are in their final stages of rehabilitation.

Players will not only lose valuable fitness while they are injured and unable to train, but will also lose their judgement and eye/hand co-ordination. Their awareness will also deteriorate. Obviously there are going to be some injuries to players that will prevent them from doing any sort of training. Medical opinions must be respected and any player who may be at risk of further injury should not be encouraged to be involved in ball work. This section is more for players with injuries that will keep them from training or playing for three to four weeks, and players who are in their final stages of rehabilitation. I have always believed that too much emphasis is placed on getting players back from injury to play, simply because they have recovered. What we as coaches forget is that if a player’s skill level has suffered, so will their confidence, which may potentially create further injuries.

In the past, I have believed that if a player is unable to run because of injury, he should be able to handball, and if he is unable to handball, he should be able to run. I realise now that this is not necessarily correct. However, in most cases there is always something players could be doing. It could be as simple as a game of table tennis, which will keep the players reflexes and eye/hand co-ordination sharp.

For obvious reasons, most of the drills for injured players in this section allow for them to be stationary and to work within their individual limitations. It is also vital that all injured players are supervised when doing ball work, as players become over enthusiastic and will always test their injuries at the worst possible times. Players, who have been inactive for a length of time, will become fatigued quickly and as a result the risk of further or new injuries is greater.

The first consideration must always be for the type of injury the player has. Where possible, separate players into groups, so they are all capable of similar work. Also be mindful of players with soft tissue injuries. Select drills that are going to give these players touch work for ball control rather than using drills to enhance fitness.
At the start of training, set up your warm up and short hands drill sessions to cater for some of these injured players. In the early part of training, it is possible to set up a working grid, where players work in lanes to handball, short kick or work at ground level. Try setting up one lane with different coloured cones for injured players and modify their tasks accordingly. Remember to keep the intensity out of training these players until you are sure that they are capable of completing it without risk of injury.

Challenge the players mentally rather than physically in these sessions. It is important to get them thinking and making decisions. It may be as simple as three players in a triangle. Two players have footballs and they alternate passing the ball to the third player, looking to put him under pressure. If the receiving player has a ball kicked to him, he must handball back. If he receives a handball, he must kick it back. Encourage the players to vary the ways in which the ball is given and also encourage them to speed up the play when the receiving player needs extra pressure.