Lewis Martin on positive path to progress
Tuesday, 24th Aug 2021PG - “We are working him harder than he has for a long time. And he’ll be wondering if that is normal or whether it’s a sign he isn’t 100 per cent.
The early termination of the 2019-2020 season halted Lewis Martin’s comeback season. After playing less than two hours worth of match time the previous season, Lewis made 33 appearances but the final one against Partick Thistle on 10th March 2020 would be Lewis’ last for a long time.
The good news that the Dunfermline defender is back on the grass delighted his manager Peter Grant who wants to get back a player who has made 164 appearances for the club. He told the media today:-
“That’s a big plus that he is out of the gym now and doing work with the physio and the sports scientist. We are progressing and going forward. That’s the most important thing — that we are not standing still and are actually moving forward.
“We are talking about 15 months and probably a 10-month period before that. That’s three years out. So, there are a lot of different issues you need to think about and we need to tread carefully.
“We don’t know if someone has changed mentally or physically, maybe your heart rate changes in that period of time. You just need to be very careful.
“Look at the case of Christian Eriksen when his heart rate got too quick — that’s just an example of why you must monitor everything the players do and make sure you are doing the right things, based on how they are responding to every type of training.”
After such a long period of time out, this isn’t like recuperation from a hamstring or even a nine-month ACL injury and it is probable that it needs even more careful managing. The manager continued is update on the 25 year old:-
“I have no doubt that he will come in after training and feel sore because we are working him harder than he has for a long time. And he’ll be wondering if that is normal or whether it’s a sign he isn’t 100 per cent.
“There are some days when he won’t be fit to train — even doing his own thing — because he has worked so hard the previous day, having come from zero.
“We really want Lewis not to be embarrassed and say ‘I need to put the brakes on today’ if he is feeling it. That is totally normal.
“Knowing the type of kid he is, he’ll want to train every day — but that could lead to a negative. We want to keep him on a positive path.
“We’re chuffed but we have to be very careful. We don’t have a reserve team or anything like that, so it is very difficult for injured players to come straight into a training session and get right up to speed. We are working hard to get his levels up to being able to join in training.”
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