As we approach the business end of another intense Championship season, we caught up with Chris Hanson, the Club’s long serving Head of Medical, to get his insights into how the squad is kept as fit as possible.
Can you start by telling us a bit about your role please Chris?
As Head of Medical for the First Team at Fulham, I work closely with our team of therapists, strength and conditioning coaches, nutritionist, and doctors, as well as our Head of Performance, Bruno Mendes. We monitor the players' training load, daily wellbeing, and medical status closely in order to identify any issues early and provide the management team with detailed information on where our players are from a medical and physical point of view throughout the season. This helps us reduce injury risk and maximise performance.
On the medical side, is the Championship a tougher division than the Premier League?
It's a different test. The physical demands of a Premier League game are usually greater, but during a season the game schedule is more spread out so you get longer to recover and prepare for matches. The Championship is a really competitive league with a lot of difficult fixtures and, of course, there are more games and with that comes more travel. The next game is never far away, so the recovery cycle between fixtures becomes very important for us. Certainly this year we feel we have managed to navigate that path pretty well with good quality recovery therapy, excellent nutrition and hydration strategies at the Training Ground and on matchday, and we also work with each player to ensure they are sleeping well. Our players have also been using Therabody’s RecoveryAir pneumatic compression boots, which accelerate circulation through passive recovery, and the Theragun PRO, which fans will be more familiar seeing our players use, to increase blood flow, reduce muscle soreness and aid recovery between games. The beauty of both devices is that they’re portable, so we can use them on away trips, and the majority of players have their own sets at home, so they also have access to the therapeutic benefits when they are not in the treatment room.
How did the three-match postponement at the end of 2021 affect your work?
There were two main considerations during that period. Firstly, we had to be able to adapt to an ever-changing training schedule as we prepared for games that were cancelled at the last minute, and at that time we were unsure whether our next game would be on or not. Secondly, when the fixtures are then added back into the calendar, you end up with a more congested program. But effectively, our work didn’t change, we kept to the same principles, we did our recovery in the same way. We use the tools and strategies that we’ve identified as being of benefit to us and ensure we’re in the best place possible going into the next game. One positive to come out of the match cancellations was that I got to spend a rare Christmas Day with my family!
It seemed to pay off in January, as we won all five of our matches in that congested 15 day period…
It's always enjoyable when you win, there’s a real buzz around the Training Ground and you just want the games to keep coming. When they come thick and fast, you get into a cycle of preparing, playing, recovering, and repeating that process. We were getting results and we weren’t hampered by injuries. It’s been a good season so far from a player availability point of view, and we always want to give the Head Coach as many options as possible from the playing squad.
We’ve scored 22 goals after the 75th minute of matches this season – that stamina and longevity shown by the players must be pleasing?
It’s always pleasing to see high energy and the intensity right to the end of our games. Many games are won and lost in the final minutes, and that’s no different in the Championship. Being part of the backroom team that helps prepare the players to meet the demands of the games and having the opportunity to support Marco’s philosophy has been really satisfying so far this season. Whether we have been winning, losing, or drawing in games, we’ve always kept pushing until the end, and most of the time that’s led to positive results.
