How to Use Physios to Prevent Injuries in Football Manager?
Player injuries are an unavoidable part of football, and Football Manager (FM) mirrors this reality.
While having top physios at your club is essential, the real key lies in the mantra: prevention is better than cure.
Ignoring player attributes like Natural Fitness, Condition, and Age during a packed schedule (e.g., 2-3 matches a week in the English Premier League) can lead to disaster.
Even the best teams can see their winning streaks derailed by injuries to key players.
This article dives into how to prevent injuries, the importance of physios, and how to build a top-notch medical team in FM.
Why Player Rotation is Crucial?
Rotating your squad isn’t just a strategy – it’s a necessity. Overplaying your best 11 increases the risk of injuries, especially for older players or those with low Natural Fitness.
By rotating players, you reduce the workload on your medical team and keep your squad fresh.
Injuries during training are also common, but they can be minimized by tailoring training tasks to each player’s physical abilities.
The Role of Physios in Football Manager
Physios play a vital role in injury prevention and recovery. Here’s how they help:
Player Readiness Reports: They assess a player’s fitness for 90 minutes on the pitch.
Injury Diagnosis: They determine the severity of injuries and estimate recovery times (3 days – 3 weeks – 3 months).
Rehabilitation Support: They guide players through recovery after long absences.
Players who have been out of the field for a long time should gradually return to the game.
Just because a player’s INJ status is removed doesn’t mean they’re ready to start!
A player at 73% condition is a risk – ease them back with substitute appearances first.
It is better to wait a week or two and give the player a chance from the bench so that the rehabilitation process run its course.
Forget the previous 4 sentences when it comes to cold and the like.
How to Find Excellent FM Physio?
Very easy if you look at certain attributes. The most important is Physiotherapy!
Then come Determination, Level of Discipline and Motivating (qualities of a good fm coach).
It’s good that (reserve or youth) physio has a high Working with Youngsters attribute when it comes to Under 19s and B team.
Foreign experts, who are hired to work in your club, should have good Adaptability in order to “get to know the terrain” (language, nation, league, etc.).
This is not crucial during the engagement!
Head Physio: The Key to Your Medical Team
This place is reserved for the best. He must have excellent Man Management plus above-mentioned qualities.
Otherwise, the position may remain vacant until further notice (my opinion). You won’t make a mistake.
What is the purpose of this function? Control of the work of other team members and who will be engaged in a specific task.
Of course, there are also reports (injury and fitness information about a player).
Setting up an average physio just to have a function is not a solution.
How Many Physios Does Your Club Need?
My lucky number is 5. However, it needs to be viewed a wider picture: ambition, finance, the number of players and etc.
Why would I bring 5 physios to a club with 30 players and a budget of 180,000 euros?
On the other hand, I couldn’t imagine myself as a fm manager of a big club with only one member of the medical team in the expert staff. It is therefore important to have your own system.
For example, it’s not bad to start from the total number of players – First Team, B and Under 19s.
Do they have a high grade of Natural Fitness or not? Did the key players in the team have serious injuries?
After getting the answers to these questions, the picture becomes clearer, but there are some obstacles along the way.
The biggest obstacle can be finances (small salaries) and limitations by a board (physios allowed) for the arrival of new experts in the club.
But if the scouts do their job well, there will be no problems.
A great “knowledge base” makes it easy to search and how and in what way do I seek physios, I write below.
Search Filter
My search is not too complicated because it contains only two attributes: Determination – 10 and Physiotherapy – 15.
If there are many candidates for the required position, then I add one more attribute Working With Youngsters – 10.
These are “sweet troubles”, but it may happen that there is no solution. Then it is necessary to alleviate the criteria so that Determination remain unchanged.
After that, I make a narrow choice and look at other indicators: years and personality.
The advantage always have local experts while those from abroad don’t have to have a good Adaptability. There remains an option Contract – Finalize Deal.
Final Thoughts
Injury prevention and effective physio management are critical to success in Football Manager.
By rotating players, hiring skilled physios, and monitoring player fitness, you can keep your squad in top shape.
I’d like to hear your opinion in the comments!
What’s your approach to physios in FM? How many do you hire, and what search filters do you use?
Author: Alen Stefanovic Game: Football Manager 2017
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