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Newcastle United’s new backroom team will try to get grips with an old problem at the club’s Benton base that nobody has managed to solve in recent years – muscle injuries.

It is an issue that has haunted the Magpies for more than a decade.

And it has courted plenty of attention down the years too, from Graeme Souness moving training from the first-team base to the club’s Academy to Glenn Roeder enduring one injury after another to destroy his chances of a long stint in charge.

Alan Shearer tried to introduce ice baths during his short time in charge while Alan Pardew used tried to use post-game techniques in an “ice truck” during the club’s Europa League campaign as he tried to get his players to recover quickly.

Newcastle have recruited fitness coaches such as Faye Downey and Dave Billows in each of the last two summers.

However, it has been to no avail with injuries mounting up.

Last season alone there were 30 muscle injuries reported at United with the absence of Fabricio Coloccini and particularly Rolando Aarons a huge blow to the team at times.

Getting Aarons up and running on a regular basis could be key to Newcastle’s chances of success in the 2015/16 season IF he can reproduce the form of the early part of last term before being struck with one blow after another.

Siem De Jong – hardly injured at Ajax Amsterdam – also endured a thigh injury in the first half of the campaign with the No 10’s goals and creativity sadly missing at St James’ Park.

New boss Steve McClaren will try to reduce the problem by bringing in one of his trusted backroom men in Alessandro Schoenmaker who will take up the post of strength and conditioning coach at the club’s Benton base.

Speaking of Schoenmaker in the past, McClaren said: “The Sports Science side of the game is hugely important and Alessandro will be working a lot on individual programmes for players.

“I’ve worked with him in the past and he is very good at what he does.”

McClaren has worked with Schoenmaker before with the fitness guru commenting: “My first time (with McClaren) was with FC Twente.

“It was in his first period with FC Twente and after winning the championship we left together to go to Wolfsburg.

“After he left the club I stayed in Germany but when he moved to the UK I followed him again (at Forest), then he went back to FC Twente and I went back.”

After working with McClaren again last season at Derby County the new Toon boss knows exactly what he’s getting from his fitness coach.

And one FC Twente fan, named Erwin, contacted me via Twitter to say: “Schoenmaker is a very good choice.

“All FC Twente players loved him and still speak fondly of him. There were hardly any muscle injuries for the players in his time here in Enschede.”

So one of the challenges for McClaren and his team is simply to get players on the pitch and ensure the treatment room is no longer congested.

NUMBER OF MUSCLE INJURIES AT NEWCASTLE LAST SEASON

Rolando Aarons 5

Paul Dummett 5

Daryl Janmaat 5

Fabricio Coloccini 3

Siem De Jong 2

Cheick Tiote 2

Jack Colback 2

Gabriel Obertan 1

Mehdi Abeid 1

Moussa Sissoko 1

Rob Elliot 1

Sammy Ameobi 1

Mike Williamson 1

(Source: Physioroom.com)