Weary players at risk
Critically, you should avoid arrival at night if travelling east-west, and plan the events on the plane to ensure you arrive at your destination in a state ready to join the day based on local time. This includes the management of the interior lighting, meal timings and enforced exercise and movement.
On top of this, flights longer than 12-15 hours that are east or westward, as opposed to northsouth, increase the likelihood of jet lag; especially eastward travel that arrives at night time local time.
It seems likely that Spurs will land in the late afternoon in Hong Kong, whilst Liverpool – who only left last night – will land the same day as the game. When they wake up the following morning Spurs’s players will likely find temperatures touching 30C (86F) and 80 per cent humidity, whilst Liverpool will enjoy weather very similar to the UK’S this week. It will therefore be a fresh challenge for Spurs’s sports science team to ensure the hydration status of the players remain normal and watch out for any signs of heat stress.
Sleep will be a key part of Spurs’s week. There should be plans in place to manage sleep times and conditions to minimise waking at inappropriate times, to try to blunt the feelings of jet lag. In contrast, Liverpool will spend more time sleeping on the plane than they will in Australia: after the game they have a commercial photo shoot before landing back in the UK on Friday evening. Two and a half days of travel, halfway around the world and back, in the space of four days might seem attractive from a financial point of view, but the cost of a major injury would wipe this out in an instant, with the prospective cost of a replacement player and loss of performance on the pitch.
Considering that many of the players will be playing international qualifiers in two weeks, it seems to be a risk too far in relation to player well-being and mental fatigue. The clubs are in effect stealing from the physical and mental “bank” of the players and staff ahead of a long and important 2017-18 season which culminates with the World Cup in Russia.
The net effect of this short-term gain will only likely be seen this time next year. It may be something the clubs come to regret.
Mike Davison is managing director of Isokinetic London