What can you do as a player to help prevent Achilles ruptures after lockdown?

1 Improve plasticity in your calves

Strengthen your calf to make sure the calve and tendon can handle forces but at the same time spend time before training and after home training massage, kneading and increasing the length of the muscles. This will allow more room to play and reduce the forces applied on the attachment. This is critical for Achilles health and injury prevention.

2 Choose your surfaces carefully

Newton’s third law of forces states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When you train on concrete, there is very little give or cushioning, your ankles, knees and back often hurt because your tendons and joints act as shock absorbers for your body weight landing on or after each step. Surfaces like grass and court provided more cushioning and less impact on your tendons and joints. If you have been roadrunning and this has been your primary activity, then when you go back to grass, you will have problems. Train on the surface you play your sport.

3 Vary it up

Sport is not going to a calf- raising machine and moving up and down while you look in the mirror and admire the beauty. To strengthen your calves, you need to vary up your exercises by applying varied degrees of intensity, tempo, repetitions and angled forces.

4 Rule of thumb

Never increase intensity more than 10% every week. A safe 5% increase is the perfect loading for adaption to happen. If you overload too much too soon, your calves will be shot and you run the risk of rupturing your Achilles.

This information is too important not to take seriously. I have noticed over the years especially when I was the strength and conditioning coach for former PSL side Black Aces that some players love to get injured because it gives them time to rest and they get paid irrespective. If you are a real athlete and have this hunger to play at your best in every game that your body permits, then take this information and do something about it. Train smart and reach out if you need any advice or help.