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Arsenal’s first team squad suffered 86 injuries in 2013/14.

Collectively, they spent 2472 days on the sidelines.

Then-club captain Thomas Vermaelen made just 21 appearances while Laurent Koscielny, Bacary Sagna, Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Abou Diaby, Santi Cazorla, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Serge Gnabry, Yaya Sanogo and Lukas Podolski all missed more than a month of action.

Worryingly for Arsenal, more than half of these injuries were muscular problems, and therefore likely avoidable.

Even more worryingly, this was a issue that had been steadily escalating.

(Image: Shaun Botterill)

The club – after reconnaissance trips to various teams and franchises in the US – built a hugely impressive new medical centre in 2011. It didn’t alleviate the problem.

More had to be done, and it was.

Enter, Shad Forsythe.

A strength and conditioning specialist by trade, Forsythe spent the 10 years prior to joining Arsenal working within the coaching set-up for the German national team, culminating in World Cup success.

(Image: Martin Rose/Getty)

Before that Forsythe worked at the US Olympic Training Centre in San Diego and also for EXOS – an American company focusing on performance culture that was founded by Forsythe’s colleague at Germany, Mark Verstegen.

His title at Arsenal is ‘head of athletic performance enhancement’. Translated, he oversees players’ fitness, injury prevention and rehabilitation programmes.

You only need look at the recent history of Wilshere, Walcott, Ramsey or Vermaelen to know that prevention and rehabilitation are areas that need improving at Arsenal.

Arsenal - Days lost to injury 2472 2013/14 1834 2014/15 2047 Last 5 seasons average Physioroom

Arsene Wenger said of his arrival at the club: “He would not be here if I was not impressed. We are trying to be as good as we can everywhere."

But has Wenger been impressed with the results?

Last season the number of injuries dropped by more than 20 per cent, muscular injuries dropped by the same figure.

The number of days lost to injury dropped by more than 25 per cent.

Arsenal still suffered badly from injuries. The number of days lost to injury by players was only slightly below the average of the last five years, and 35 muscular injuries is above average for the past five seasons.

(Image: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC)

There are, however, mitigating factors. Firstly, the 2014 World Cup meant that many of Arsenal’s players enjoyed a much shorter break than they would usually be due.

If you look at the players who suffered early season injuries – Mesut Ozil, Mathieu Debuchy, Olivier Giroud – all travelled to Brazil on international duty.

Secondly, Forsythe arrived at the club when a large number of players were already injured. Plus, his methods could not be expected to have immediate results. It would take months before these processes could have any affect.

It’s more helpful to look at Arsenal’s injury statistics in the second half of the season.

(Image: Getty)

From January onwards, Arsenal suffered just 11 muscular injuries (compared to 24 before) and lost 725 days to injury (compared to 1109 before).

After six months of being at Arsenal, Forsythe had reduced the club’s injury record to its lowest half season total for five years.

At the end of 2015/16, Arsenal’s injury list featured just Danny Welbeck and the perennially unfortunate Diaby.

So, what changed?

Verstegen, who worked with Forsythe for Germany and founded the company he worked for previously says: “About 65 percent of injuries — both athletic and lifestyle-related — come from overuse, which is repetitive use of joints that are rendered dysfunctional by muscular imbalances."

(Image: Martin Rose/Bongarts/Getty)

His, and Forsythe's, focus is on movement training rather than repetitive, static muscle exercises.

For example, rather than have players repeatedly using a leg press, rehab and training would focus on things like plyometrics (rapid stretching and contracting of muscles) or agility training in a bid to recreate the type of stress a footballer’s body is put under during a match.

That’s not to say static exercises can't be useful, merely that the focus should be on training the body to become accustomed to all forms of movement and forces, rather than simply making it ‘strong’ and hoping it will resist an awkward fall or challenge.

But it’s not just physical training that is part of the Forsythe’s style of rehabilitation and prevention.

Arsenal - Total injuries Physioroom

His approach with EXOS and Germany was a holistic one. Nutrition, and neuroscience are combined with performance training and physical therapy in a bid to see the athlete as a whole, rather than a series of joints and muscles that could be the victim of unfortunate twists or tackles.

And no detail is too insignificant in this approach. While working for Germany, Forsythe and his colleagues had their say in the time of day the squad would fly, which hotels the squad stayed in, which rooms the players stayed in and other seemingly innocuous matters.

The constant monitoring of players’ condition, a practice that has been common in sport for years, has also intensified at Arsenal.

“We get weighed every week,” said Wilshere in a recent interview with Men’s Fitness. “We get regular DEXA scans to check our muscle mass and body fat levels. There’s no hiding place.”

(Image: Pool/Bongarts/Getty)

Even the infamously stubborn Wenger has adapted the way he trains his players.

Wilshere added: “Training used to be long, hard double sessions for the whole team… now it’s more positional-based. Midfielders do one drill, defenders and attackers another. Training is more intelligent.”

For Arsenal’s manager, it has been a year of considerable change, but he is open to more.

He said: “We made a lot of changes in the way we prepare, in the way we work on prevention for injuries.

“We know a lot more than 18 years ago than when I arrived, but still not enough to predict 100 per cent scientifically what happens to everybody.”

(Image: Stuart MacFarlane)

Since then end of the season the Gunners have made yet more additions to their backroom staff.

James Haycock joined as a physio while strength and conditioning coach Barry Solan, who also worked at EXOS, will become Forsythe’s new assistant.

When Wenger arrived Arsenal in the late 1990’s he propelled the club to the forefront of sports science. The rest caught up and the Gunners seemed to lose their way.

Almost two decades later, they could be about step ahead of their English rivals once more.

All injury statistics are courtesy of Physioroom.com.