Why Injured Players Are Cash in the Attic

By David Hare

My S&C education started with physiotherapists. I was working in a clinic in Malahide that blended S&C with physio — something that wasn’t all that common in Ireland at the time. It was a real eye-opener for me in terms of what could be done, what should be done, and what frankly needs to be done when it comes to managing injuries and avoiding them in the first place. From those early days right through to now, I’ve always believed we underutilise injured players when it comes to improving fitness and driving performance.

Let me be clear: on any squad, your injured players need to be pushed. They should have goals, structure, and visible effort standards — not just be coasting along until the pain subsides. In many team setups, once a player gets injured, they’re quietly parked to the side, managed gently, and told to “rest up.” But that’s a massive missed opportunity.

As Fergus Connolly says, “90% healthy is not 100% injured.”

There is always something you can do, and you should strive to make this mindset part of your team’s culture.

Of course, this is easier said than done. Even the most dedicated players tend to switch off a bit when they’re not training with the squad. They can easily hide in the rehab corner, finishing off the session with a token spin on the bike — and we all know that’s not going to cut it. Worse still, as I touched on in my Centre of Excellence article, the rest of the squad can start to ignore what injured players are doing. A subtle but dangerous attitude creeps in: “Ah sure, he’s just getting a rub.” That sort of thinking is a culture killer, and it’s why I go out of my way to highlight how hard the injured players are working.

Sometimes I find it hard to get through to players just how easy it is for me to push them hard when they’re injured. A broken ankle, for example, still leaves me with a lot of other body parts I can hammer. If players don’t buy into that, you're in real trouble. In high-level sport, injuries are inevitable — so your system needs to account for that.

The goal should always be to get players even fitter (where possible) before they return.

One of the persistent issues I’ve encountered in my S&C career, particularly at intercounty level, is the reluctance to invest in proper off-feet conditioning tools. Airdynes, rowers, bikes, ski ergs, slideboards… they’re gold dust for training injured players. Years ago, when I was coaching Longford, I managed to pick up two second-hand airbikes for next to nothing. If you ask players from that era, they’ll “fondly” remember the pain those bikes inflicted. It was the same in Offaly.

These tools did more than just build fitness — they sent a message to the whole group: the injured lads are working.

Another crucial part of this process is your physio team. Their mindset matters. They must see themselves as an extension of the fitness staff, not just the injury management team. They need to push players forward, not wrap them in cotton wool. Because if injured players spot an easy way out, they’ll take it. But if everywhere they turn — S&C, physio, coach — is demanding more of them, they’ll improve. And in time, they’ll even grow to love that process.

It’s why I’ve found that the best physios in a team environment tend to be former athletes themselves, often with a sports science background. There are exceptions, of course, but in my experience, these are the ones who really get it.

So, how does this look in the real world? Can you apply it at the club level? I believe you absolutely can — and here’s how a typical club setup might run:

1. Players arrive 20 minutes early for individual prep and prehab.

2. S&C takes the field players for their movement prep and warm-up.

3. Injured players head indoors for ~40 minutes of focused gym work, limited rest to get a bonus fitness effect.

4. Conditioning block using off-feet tools like the ski erg, rower, airbike.

5. Rejoin the group at the end, where the injured crew — now visibly worked — support or cheer on the team during their pitch-based conditioning.

This builds a very different culture. The injured players don’t feel isolated. The rest of the team respects the grind. It also re-frames injury as an opportunity, not a setback.

One final point: in club setups, I often find the physio-at-training model awkward. In most cases, the physio is better off working from their clinic, with all the equipment, privacy, and control needed to deliver high-quality rehab. Of course, you still need to cover taping, etc., on training nights — so balance is important — but chasing quality over convenience pays off in the long run. Something to think about. 

And finally, the attitude of the S&C coach is the glue that binds it all. You have to bring pure enthusiasm to this group. Push them. Encourage them. Work on the small technical details. Make it personal. If you can make that rehab window the most productive block of their season, your players won’t dread it—they’ll thrive in it.

So how are your injured players cash in the attic?

Quite simply, because your opposition rarely takes this approach. More often than not, injured players are left to drift along with bits and pieces of rehab, enduring a slow — and sometimes torturous — return to play. Reinjury is all too common, and players often come back undercooked or disheartened.

But get this system right, and you’ve got a massive advantage. You shorten the return-to-play window. You increase player confidence. You show the entire group that injury doesn’t mean irrelevance. In fact, it might just be the crucible that forges their next big performance.