How can Liverpool solve this man’s injury problems?

Liverpool defender Daniel Agger has described his anguish at his constant injury problems:

“I am definitely confident I can come back stronger. I know I say this every time, but I have really done everything this time to make every single muscle in my body stronger and I have done everything in the right way. If I could do something to make sure I wouldn’t get injured again, I would do it no matter what it was.”

Agger’s current injury is due to a knock in his tendon behind his knee but the Dane has had his fair share of other injuries since his arrival at the club in 2006. The Reds defence is noticeably less assured in the absence of Agger, but this has been the case more often than not this season as a succession of injuries have kept the 26 year old sidelined. The Dane believes a good pre-season will give him the opportunity to recover and not have to rush back into first team training:

“The important thing for me is that I have pre-season to look forward to and I am not in a rush now. That’s been the problem the last few times I have been injured – I’ve been in a rush to get back. I’d come back early but would get a new injury. It’s really good for me now that I have all the way until pre-season to get ready.”

Hopefully the Sports Science team can help in this regard too. Earlier on in the season when he suffered calcification in a bone in his ankle, Agger began to seriously question whether his body was made for the rigours for the Premier League. The constant injury battles that have plagued the Dane, have also been suffered by Fabio Aurelio, and neither have yet to really feel the benefits of the new Sports Science and Medical Department set up last summer.

Led by Dr Peter Brukner, a world leader in Sports Science, it was believed that fitness levels would improve and soft tissue injuries would decrease as new methods were begun to be adhered to by the players. Each player is said to have their own tailor-made warm up and warm down exercises as well as having individual diet and fitness programmes. Such attention to detail is meant not only to ensure fitness levels are at their optimum, but also to strengthen the areas of their bodies perceived to be the weakest and the most susceptible to injury.

Both Aurelio and Agger however have had their fair share of soft tissue/muscle injuries this campaign with Aurelio continually hampered by hamstring injuries, while Agger’s latest injury is a result of a damaged tendon. Still, it is only a year into the new project, and hopefully with Agger recovering for the start of pre-season, he can make the most of techniques used by the Sport Science team and strengthen “every muscle in his body” as he says he has already been doing.

Of course, you have to prepare for the eventuality that it might not work, and the Reds should be focused at looking at the likes of Gary Cahill, Scott Dann or Phil Jones as transfer targets this summer to ensure the Reds have strength in depth if Agger is once again on the physio table.

Written by David Tully for Live4Liverpool.com. Follow us on twitter @live4Liverpool or like us on Facebook

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