Rivista Undici translated from Italian:

The English club is experimenting with a new technology able to identify the biological signals that come before injuries. It is a 12-week project, developed with the Scottish biotech company Entourage, that could change the way teams manage their players’ health and extend their careers. The study will initially involve the 25 players of Forest’s men’s second team, who will give two blood samples every week. The samples will be analysed to monitor thousands of proteins and build a detailed picture of each player’s biological response to training, matches, injuries and the recovery that follows.

The results will then be compared with data the club has already collected on workloads, physical preparation and the players’ clinical condition. The aim is to understand whether certain biological changes can anticipate the risk of non-traumatic muscle injuries, the ones that happen without direct contact with an opponent.

Entourage chief executive Patrick Gunning:

If we know a player’s individual biology, we can start to understand what works for him and what does not.

If, after a match, one player’s inflammation levels stay much higher than a teammate’s, that information can help the medical staff judge whether a different approach to recovery is needed.

More technology, more, more, more.