It is seven weeks since the cup final and seven weeks before the new Bundesliga season kicks off and a skeleton squad of Borussia Dortmund players have begun preparations. The players were kitted out in their new Puma gear before undergoing prophylactic and lactate tests.

Dr Andreas Schlumberger (athletics coach) and Dr Markus Braun (club doctor) led the ten professionals through a series of tests set up by the physios. The tests were designed to monitor flexibility and body stability with the intention of helping to prevent injuries as training commences. The players, split into small groups, had to undergo five specific tests.

The afternoon saw the team on the track where they endured the now obligatory lactate tests. The idea behind these tests is to establish each player's aerobic potential in order to tailor individual training programmes over the coming weeks. From today the players will train twice daily.

image
Jürgen Klopp with Dr Schlumberger

In five gradually more testing sessions (10 to 20 km/h) the two sets of five players hit the track and were duly blood tested at the end of each repetition. The final test really had the players gasping for breath. Further blood tests were taken during the short rest and recovery periods.

The medical team will now go away and examine the results of the tests to establish lactate levels. High lactate levels are an indicator that muscles are under too much stress when working under extreme conditions.

The players who have yet to return from World Cup duty will face exactly the same tests but not until they have had at least four weeks holiday. Coach Jürgen Klopp explained, "We noticed after the last European Championships that two or three weeks simply isn't enough." Each player that has endured an intensive World Cup played in extreme conditions will be granted sufficient 'downtime, "That is so important," said Klopp.

That will mean that Hummels and Co. will not return to training until a week before the DFB Cup game against Stuttgarter Kickers. Club captain Sebastian Kehl said, "It isn't ideal, of course, but we have grown used to being short on numbers at this stage."

The coaching and medical team face something of a challenge in the two training camps in the Kitzbuhel Alps and Bad Ragaz "with the players arriving back in dribs and drabs" (Klopp), but he has grown used to these difficulties in his six years and knows all too well not to get worked up over things beyond his control. So the coming weeks will see the young bucks as the focus of attention. This time last year a certain Erik Durm made the most of that opportunity...