Physiotherapy experts explain some keys to the striker’s recovery process
The youth player has shown some green shoots but is still far from his best version
Although it is leaving some green shoots, The gap between the Ansu prior to the injuries and the current one worries Barcelona fans. From the player’s environment they assure that he is physically at his best, but every time he plays he transmits the sensation of having lost explosiveness.
At the moment we are seeing a more conservative version of Ansu. A more game-oriented striker, who risks less one-on-one, and who moves away from the band. We spoke to physiotherapy experts to answer some questions about Ansu’s recovery process.
Are the muscle injuries connected to the operated knee?
Ansu went through a very traumatic process when he injured his knee. After several unsuccessful attempts to suture the meniscus, he opted for a partial excision advised by the trusted doctor of Jorge Mendes, Jose Carlos Noronha. Once he was cleared, despite having suffered a lot, he returned to a great level.
Curiously it has been, after recovering from his last muscle injury, when we have seen a very different version of the footballer. Some people consulted by this newspaper stress that the two injuries may be connected. In this sense, they emphasize that a knee injury like this causes the footballer to lose naturalness in his movements. The memory of the injury is so present that the player protects himself with his movements and can overload other areas. It is common in this type of case to suffer muscle injuries.
They also highlight the dilemma the footballer went through and how he chose to rule out the operating room. “After what he experienced, surely he was not mentally prepared to go through the operating room again. It is normal that, if the player sees an option of not going through that painful process again, he opts for the conservative route & rdquor ;.
Ansu Fati, during a training
| FCB
How does having chosen the conservative path affect your performance?
Some of the people consulted acknowledge that they would have advised the footballer to go through the operating room. “The fact of operating implies that you can suture and repair the lesion practically completely. Otherwise you have to wait for the scar to be ductile and consolidate in the best conditions. It is very different to be able to open and repair it than to depend on that process.”
In this sense they point to the resemblance to Dembélé’s injuries“and then we have seen that he had to be operated & rdquor ;, but they emphasize that having surgery is not a total guarantee either. “Now it is very easy to say that he had to undergo surgery, but no procedure guarantees a total repair. Nor was it a guarantee to have surgery & rdquor ;. In this sense, they remember the case of Ousmane and how this type of injury does not come alone. “It’s as if he had a hem on both hamstrings. And in that area there will always be more tension.”
Are there different healing processes?
“Healing processes should be the same for everyone & rdquor;they begin by saying “Every muscular injury has a period of vulnerability: you break, there is bleeding, then the inflammatory process and then there is a start of healing. This initiation of healing is very important. It is proven that it is much more important to make an active recovery than a passive one, but you cannot go too far. Sometimes you tell the player: do three exercises and he does 23. In a six-week injury, the maximum period of vulnerability is between four and six weeks.”
How does it affect the mental aspect?
“I imagine that the tests and the metrics that they do must be good because, if not, we would not see it as much. Ansu’s performance cannot be explained by a single factor. When you break into an explosive outburst, it’s normal to later be afraid that your body won’t respond well to this type of action.”
It seems the case of Ansu but, How can a situation like this be reversed?
“The best level of a footballer comes with the confidence of the coach, with his physical and mental preparation and seeing progress game by game. What happens when you get injured? This circle is broken, you don’t have confidence, you lack continuity and things don’t work out. I think he’s trying hard but it doesn’t translate on the pitch. It is multifactorial. It would be necessary to see it in training: there are people who are the kings of training and then they do not perform the same in games. It may be more of a trust aspect, but these issues are always multifactorial.”.