Tom Shaw / Performance Nutritionist / AC Sparta Praha

Introduction

Professional football teams with high player availability are more successful.1 Therefore, maintaining high player availability is a top priority for sports science and medical practitioners. Compared with injury, illness incidence appears to be relatively small among professional football teams (8 per 1000 player hours vs 1.5 per 1000 player days).2,3 Nevertheless, illness can cause significant time loss which negatively impact team performance and success, particularly in congested fixture schedules. Fortunately, nutritional interventions can help prevent and treat illness and therefore increase player availability. Here I present a case study describing the nutritional interventions we are using to reduce illness at AC Sparta Praha.