Sports science expert David Buttifant backs Blues’ fitness team as injury list soars
Carlton’s injury list has hit a staggering amount as they attempt to mount a premiership challenge, but a leading fitness expert with experience in winning flags has backed them to turn it around.
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Collingwood’s trailblazing sports science expert David Buttifant believes Carlton still has time to arrest its dramatic injury crisis as he backed the club’s bold decision to lift training loads over summer.
Carlton’s premiership ambitions have been hit by a soft-tissue epidemic that has seen at least 12 players suffering soft-tissue injuries.
Remarkably, the Blues are still 6-3 – with their losses totalling 21 points, despite losing the most games to players in their side across the competition (60) and the third-most to total injuries (83).
Many injuries have been suffered in training and some have been repeat injuries, with Adam Cerra (hamstring) and David Cuningham (calf) out for up to a month and Matthew Cottrell now dealing with a navicular stress fracture.
Carlton coach Michael Voss said on Thursday the club was desperate to fix the issue, but admitted it was a complex scenario that was not only about training loads.
Voss said the Blues would have to respect Jack Martin’s injury history when it came to a return date, even though the most recent setback was only minor.
Mitch McGovern revealed as he recovered from his hamstring issue that fitness boss Andrew Russell and coach Voss came to the players at the start of the season and vowed to increase their volumes in order to reach elite status.
The club trained heavily through its two pre-season games instead of de-loading, with Blues chief executive Brian Cook admitting the program and a list of injury-prone players had to be at fault after a forensic review.
Buttifant spearheaded Collingwood’s program across 13 seasons – including the 2010 premiership – and said the long list of soft-tissue injuries had to have a specific cause.
But he said no elite training program was developed without some risk.
“It’s very easy to be conservative. But when you are conservative you don’t push the boundaries of performance. I can understand Vossy thinking we have to get these guys fitter, we have to have a crack at doing that. But if you don’t get the recipe right, it’s consequential.
“The important thing now is to not panic and start rushing guys back. Take your medicine. A player might miss 3-4 weeks and even be on reduced minutes. You only get one good crack at it (leading into finals) and if you don’t get it right you can jeopardise your campaign and you fall over.
“Usually when you get a spate of injuries it’s cause and effect. Because players are so finely tuned that if you increase their loads by more than 10 per cent their body can say, “What is going on here?”. You put players on the precipice. Especially ones predisposed to injury.
“Carlton wants to raise the bar and build enhanced performance but sometimes there is a cost associated with that.”
Voss made clear his frustration on Thursday about the injury concerns but said the entire club would set about trying to find a remedy.
“It’s been a challenge. It has been a challenge but not something we have looked at recently,” he said.
“We have tried to address it for a little period of time and it’s a fairly complex answer.
“We look at the problem, try to solve the problem together and it’s the way we try to attack it.
“We feel like we have made some ground and there are still some things we need to get after. We don’t want any of them to happen so every (injury) you get is a little disappointing but at the same time we have to look at the reasons why it’s happened and put things in place to stop it happening.”
Voss said he was brimming with confidence star defender and reigning best-and-fairest winner Jacob Weitering would be at Ikon Park long-term despite rival interest.
“I am very confident. I don’t think we spent a hell of a lot of time in speculation. He is a very important player to us,” he said.
“We don’t tend to speak a lot around contracts and players’ contract status. We deal with it privately, with their management group and with the players. I am sure at the right time we will see him in a Carlton jumper for a very long time.”
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Originally published as Sports science expert David Buttifant backs Blues’ fitness team as injury list soars
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