THE BLOG BY CPD FOOTBALL | The World of Indian football and beyond by Chris Punnakkattu Daniel

India’s medical team sees AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 as a new challenge

The medical staff monitoring the Indian national team's training session. (Photo courtesy: AIFF Media)
The medical staff monitoring the Indian national team's training session. Photo courtesy: AIFF Media

Stephen Constantine has always mentioned about the significance of physical fitness to stay competitive. And for that to happen, a team always requires well-oiled machinery – a tireless medical team to operate from behind the scenes on a continuous basis.

Be it at the midnight or the wee hours, Indian National Team’s medical team – Dr. Shervin Shreiff and physiotherapists Gigy George, and Pratik Kamble go all out to ensure the Blue Tigers recover in time and stay in proper condition.

Gigy has been with the Blue Tigers since 2011 and he takes every single day in the National Team camp as “a new challenge”.

“The fitness level of the players has significantly gone up in last a few years. Take for example Jeje Lalpekhlua’s instance. Since he first played for India in 2012, he has physically improved immensely,” Gigy expressed.

“We need to thank the AIFF for providing us with all the modern physiotherapy equipment we have requested. Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy Machine, Wireless Complex, Recovery Boots, etc, make the recovery process faster and smoother,” Gigy explained.

“The introduction of sports science by Danny Deigan (since 2015) and Joel Carter (since 2017) has also yielded results.”

Dr. Shervin Sheriff, who joined the set-up less than two years back informed that the AFC Asian Cup is a “next-level test” for the medical team.

“The schedule is decided from prior. We start the day with a morning screening. Depending on the screening results, players are treated as per their requirements. During the training sessions, we track every player and follow the proceedings,” Sheriff informed.

Kamble shared that he has learnt a lot from ‘Gigy-sir,’ and his challenge in working with the National Team.

“The primary challenge of working with the National Team is the time constraint. Before the friendlies, or in a tournament where we’re playing more than 2 games in less than a week, the job is tougher. The decision making and execution has to be apt and accurate,” he maintained.

(AIFF Media)