The winter break has come to an end at BORUSSIA-PARK. Preparations for the second half of the season began with various performance tests at the Medical Park on Monday.
Before training resumes on Tuesday afternoon, the Foals underwent a series of performance tests at the start of the week. A total of 20 players participated in a series of physiotherapeutic, functional diagnostic, ergometric, lactate and spirometric tests designed to test lung and circulatory system function. With the help of these tests, the medical department are able to gain an insight into the players’ fitness levels and determine how heavy of a workload they are prepared to take on. “We did extensive performance tests during the summer. Based on this, we have selected specific tests for the players to complete today,” explained Alexander Mouhcine, head of fitness and injury prevention.
Wolf and Neuhaus part of the group
Tobias Sippel, Jan Olschowsky, Tony Jantschke, Stefan Lainer, Marvin Friedrich, Mamadou Doucouré, Ramy Bensebaini, Luca Netz, Manu Koné, Julian Weigl, Oscar Fraulo, Christoph Kramer, Rocco Reitz, Patrick Herrmann, Alassane Plea, Lars Stindl, Yvandro Borges Sanches and Nathan Ngoumou were all part of the group that participated in today’s tests. They were joined by Florian Neuhaus and Hannes Wolf. “It’s a very positive sign that the two of them were able to join after having been out injured for so long,” said Mouhcine. Neuhaus suffered a partial ACL tear on 11th September away at SC Freiburg, while Wolf tore his shoulder labrum at home against RB Leipzig a week later.
Easing back into team training
“We conducted a series of extensive tests with Flo again today, and based on those we will decide his workload for this week. Our plan is to ease him back into team training, with the aim of having him back to full fitness by January,” said Mouhcine. “Hannes was able to train with the U23s last week already, and will be able to return to team training tomorrow.” Wolf and his teammates will take to the training pitch tomorrow afternoon at 15:45 CET, as head coach Daniel Farke takes charge of his first session in nearly four weeks at BORUSSIA-PARK.
