Watford's fitness coach is carefully monitoring the workload of the players, monitoring events in the Bundesliga as well, to make sure he provides Nigel Pearson with a fully-fit and well-conditioned squad to take on the challenge of completing the remaining nine fixtures.
Pearson is only without the injured Gerard Deulofeu and Daryl Janmaat right now, and fitness guru Victor Cervera wants the Head Coach to be able to pick from as wide a pool of players as possible for as long as possible in what is likely to be a hectic period where the games come thick and fast.
“The players are very good,” Cervera said. “Most have completed 100 per cent of the sessions we have done since we came back and even the double sessions, which have been designed to spread the load. They are responding really well and we are at a good point. They have done well and some of the fitness test results have been of a very high level, which is quite good in my opinion after the break. The big test of the fitness will be when we see the real response from when the games start, but we are working hard towards getting them into the best possible condition and level.”
The Hornets have not played since March 7 and only returned to training nearly three weeks ago. They are now gearing up to resume playing Premier League matches, starting against Leicester City on June 20.
“It's been like a pre-season,” said Cervera. “It's similar but the only thing is the players didn't stop completely. They took the first steps after lockdown, we see how they responded to training and how they are in terms of fitness. Now it's about progression and progressing all components of the load. We now have the schedule and it's about phasing in the demands they are going to face in competition. We have to train to be ready for these demands.
“We expect the players to be fully ready for the first match. We are not far away and we are now trying our best to push the players in a proper way without building a chronic lead. It needs to be a consistent and planned progression.”
Premier League clubs have the advantage of seeing how the restart went in Germany, with the fitness coaches and sport scientists paying particular attention to the early spike in injuries that followed.
“I've seen the situation in the Bundesliga and it is expected when you have low time to prepare the players for high-intensity matches,” said Cervera. “The perfect scenario is you have no spike in injuries so we are trying to make our programme as detailed and progressive as we can to push the players to be ready for the first match and also the following games.”
