Physiological and Functional Assessment of Professional Football Players

Physiological and Functional Assessment of Professional Football Players presents a science-based approach to enhance athletes' performance and prevent muscle injuries. Professional football players undergo a rigorous competitive season with frequent and numerous competitions, exposing them to significant stress that can detrimentally affect their performance and lead to serious injuries in extreme cases. In order to avert such negative outcomes, coaches and team staff must formulate preventive training programs tailored to the unique characteristics and needs of each player.

The execution of these individualized training programs necessitates a comprehensive assessment of players' health status, evaluation of their functional and fitness performance, analysis of their muscular structure, identification of muscle imbalances or movement dysfunctions, and detection of potential injury risk factors. Furthermore, it is imperative to monitor the weekly training and competition load using appropriate indicators of external and internal load, adjusting workloads accordingly.

In addition, recovery training programs must be meticulously designed for each injured player. This process involves isolating the factors causing the injury and assessing the injury's severity in the initial stage. Subsequently, recovery training programs must be thoughtfully planned, incorporating various assessment tools and procedures to verify the restoration of players' functional ability and inform decisions about the return to play.

Physiological and Functional Assessment of Professional Football Players delves into the utilization of appropriate testing protocols and emphasizes that understanding the reported data is crucial for the success of professional football training. This groundbreaking book is essential reading for researchers and practitioners in the fields of soccer, sports science, recovery, data and performance analysis, and soccer coaching.

Moisés de Hoyo Lora is a Professor in Physical Education and Sports at the University of Seville (Spain). He is a former strength and conditioning coach for professional soccer teams (Sevilla FC, Levante UD, Deportivo de la Coruña, CD Leganés, and Watford FC). He is working as fitness coach in Villarreal CF. His major research interests are centered on resistance training programs and training load control in team sports.

Borja Sañudo Corrales is Full Professor in the Department of Physical Education and Sport at the University of Seville and teaching in numerous master’s degree programs in Health and Sport Sciences in Spain. He is member of the BIOFANEX (Biological and Functional Analysis of Exercise) research group. His major research interests are centered on the role of exercise and other lifestyle factors for promoting improvements in physiological function and return to play in sports.

Redha Taiar is a Professor at the University of Reims Champaign, France. He is a specialist on biomechanics of health disease and rehabilitation. His studies focus on the industry engineering for medicine and high-level sport.

Luis Carrasco Páez is a Senior Researcher of the BIOFANEX Research Group (CTS-972; Andalusian Research Program). He is also an Associated (Tenured) Professor in the Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Seville, and at International Andalusian University.