Special Fitness Plan Revealed

Liverpool's Head of Sports Science and Medicine Dr Peter Brukner has revealed the special plans he and his team have in place to keep the players fresh for a hectic schedule of five games in 15 days.

With plenty of points to play for an and FA Cup tie looming at Old Trafford Roy Hodgson will need his squad 100 per cent fit and ready for action.

Brukner and his staff have managed to get inspirational skipper Steven Gerrard and Daniel Agger available for selection again, and more intensive work behind the scenes is going on at Melwood in a bid to keep everyone sharp in this crucial period of the season.

"It's enormously challenging for us if all of the games go ahead, weather permitting," Brukner told Liverpoolfc.tv.

"We play five games in 15 days and that is a very challenging time for us all - the coaching staff, the medical staff and the physical staff.

"It's all about recovery and preparing for the next game. We are putting a lot of things in place from a nutrition point of view, from a recovery and treatment point of view, to allow the players to recover as best they can for those games every three or four days.

"The players who haven't played obviously have to train as well. We have a balance with different groups of players doing different things during this 15 day period."

While the task of keeping the players in the best physical condition for the whole of this hectic period is by no means an easy task, Brukner is confident his team have made all the right preparation for the task ahead.

"When I was with the Australia national team but in World Cups and Asian Cups we are used to playing so many games in a few days so we are used to the challenge of that.

"We've already had this season three games in seven days when we played Chelsea, Wigan and Stoke, so that gave us a taste of things to come, and to be honest it didn't finish well with the Stoke game so we'll have to a bit better this time around.

"Our players are very professional and we don't need to speak to them about overindulging over Christmas with food and alcohol but we did give them a talk about nutrition, and particular in reference to recovery and what nutritional things we can do to help the players recover for those five games in 15 days.

"There was a lot of emphasis on carbohydrates and why it is important immediately after the game. We need to make sure their carbohydrate stores which are their energy stores are fully replenished by the start of the next game.

"With a normal diet that doesn't really happen and you need longer than the three days, so we are doing specific things with their diet to enable their carbohydrate stores to be fully replenished.

"That's our job to get the players in the best possible condition on the field as they can, and after that it's up to the coaches and the players.

"We are working very hard and are trying everything that we can possibly can to get them right and we are confident we are doing everything possible."

Hodgson and his team will have a short training session on Christmas Day morning ahead of the Boxing Day trip to Blackpool.

"We will train on Christmas Day ahead of the Boxing Day game," he added.

"We will bring the players in fairly early probably for a normal session which is not a big session anyway, so we'll have a short meeting about the opposition which we always do the day before a game.

"We will travel up to Blackpool on Boxing Day morning and be ready for the game."

Brukner also gave the latest recovery updates on Jamie Carragher's dislocated shoulder and Jay Spearing, who cracked a small bone in his ankle.

He added: "Jamie is making good progress, and as you can imagine he is pushing things to the limit to get back but we are still on target for a February return.

"It still takes time for the surgery to heal and for him to get strong enough around the shoulder, but he's already working on his fitness and when he does come back he should be able to slot straight back in.

"Jamie is desperate to play and if it was up to him he would throw the sling away and get out there, but we are pushing as hard as we can to help Jamie but it does take time for these tissues to heal.

"Jay Spearing is running again and he's got another couple of weeks of building up exercises to go through and we hope he will be available again for selection in the new year.

"Everyone else is in full training."