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Always on duty: A day with the physiotherapists
The hall is piled with boxes, lots of boxes, filled with equipment. Tape, plasters, scissors - all brought here from Dortmund. Anyone who comes to this part of the hotel at the training camp doesn't need the black and white sign hanging on the door that reads "Massage" to know that this is where the physiotherapists do their work. Inside there's more: disinfectants, resistance bands, even more tape. And five beds where the players are gradually treated over time. Each one of the five phsyiotherapists at BVB - Thorben Voeste, Bjarne Bürgel, Michael Becker, Peter Kuhnt and Frank Zöllner - has his own bed and seven players who he treats regularly.
It's still quiet in the massage room. The medical visit already took place at 8 in the morning. "That's where we and the doctors have a look at the players who are injured. After that, we discuss with the fitness team, with the coach's approval, what kind of strain they can be put under today," Voeste explains. Around an hour later, the first members of the first team arrive to prepare for the morning training session ahead. Waldemar Anton and Soumaila Coulibaly are the first to arrive; they greet everyone in the room and head confidently to their respective phsyios' beds. The room fills up, and eventually every place has been taken.
The fans see the physiotherapists when they come running onto the pitch during a game to provide a player with first aid. But the majority of their work takes place in the background, and is meant to prevent injury. in the first place "It's mostly about the preparation and the recovery for training sessions and games," says Bürgel. "We check the statics, check that the players' joints can move freely and aren't blocked, and that their muscles aren't tight. Otherwise, high performance isn't possible. We work preventatively." Meanwhile, in the massage room, ankles are taped and blisters treated. The time it takes to treat a player varies, and depends on the individual.
Between the hotel and the training ground
The physiotherapists split up for training: two stay behind to take care of injured players at the hotel. One drives to the training ground with the medical bags. Two go by bike, like the players do, so that they are more flexible and can cycle back in case a player has to finish training early. Having arrived at the training ground, the last pieces of tape are applied and ice is prepared for cooling. Then the players and physios head to the fitness tent. During the warm up, the therapists keep an eye on their players and check that they are doing the exercises properly. Afterwards, when the players are chasing after the ball on the pitch, the physiotherapists observe the session from the sidelines and are there immediately if they are required for first aid.
When the physiotherapists aren't directly treating the players, they're dealing with ordering equipment or communicating with the anti-doping agency. Cooperation with doctors, fitness trainers, sports scientists, and the osteopath plays an important role. "We have our medical meetings, which we have after dinner at the training camp together with the fitness team, where we go through all the players and talk about any abnormalities", says Voeste. "In Mathias Kolodziej we have a sports scientist who provides the performance data and uses it to control the amount of strain individual players are put under, especially when it comes to running."
The morning training session is over. Now it's time for treatment, massage and care - as well as preparation for the second session, which means that the routine from the morning is repeated all over again for the afternoon session. Late into the evening, the physiotherapists are still on duty. Sometimes they are massaging and talking to the players until 11pm. That's part of the job too. The massage room is a safe space for the players - and so at this point we take our leave...
Christina Reinke
