Kyle Walker is preparing to deal with Kylian Mbappe with high tech goggles, compression boots and a massage gun, i can reveal.
Manchester City’s head of physiotherapy has revealed the secrets to the defender’s recovery between matches and the cutting edge tools with which the club sent the defender to the Qatar World Cup.
Walker made a phenomenal recovery from groin surgery at the start of October to be fit to start England’s two most recent games and his battle with Mbappe, the World Cup’s leading scorer with five goals and one of the most feared talents in the world, could be the difference between England winning and losing their quarter-final against France on Saturday.
The RecoveryAir JetBoots look like inflatable anglers’ waders. They use pneumatic compression to massage the legs, increasing blood flow to damaged muscle tissues and aid lymphatic drainage to reduce tension and swelling. While the Smart Goggles – which look like massive foam sunglasses – monitor heart rate and gently massage the face to reduce stress and anxiety, relieve headaches, facial tension and eye strain and can improve the quality of sleep.
The Theragun – a massage instrument which resembles a sci-fi weapon – has been used extensively in Walker’s recovery from the surgery, with England staff blown away by how he was able to get himself fit enough to play at the World Cup. Many did not expect him to be fit enough to make England manager Gareth Southgate’s squad for the tournament. He also finds the goggles aid his sleep – a key component of physical and mental recovery.
“He’s very gifted genetically and his speed is one of his biggest assets,” Manchester City’s head of physiotherapy James Baldwin said.
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“He knows what his body needs. His body requires deep tissue treatments and therapists will use the Theragun as part of this. He’s also one of the players we sent out with the Smart Goggles – he likes to relax and finds it helps him with his sleep.”
Baldwin sent Walker and his England team-mates Phil Foden and John Stones, who have both played regularly in the tournament, away with the recovery tools.
“For the World Cup we’ve given our players Theraguns, JetBoots, and the SmartGoggles so they have an environment where they can maintain this consistency,” Baldwin said. “People think this World Cup is more intense than usual, but when you look at the numbers for October and next January, the games programme is more intense for us than the World Cup is. We play every three to four days at club level, so players are used to the process of ‘play, recover, play, recover’.
“We’ve encouraged players to just continue this process during the World Cup. Top professionals know what works for them and the key for us is for them to just maintain this. The Theraguns and JetBoots have become part of this routine for them.
“We take a very individual approach to recovery for our players – we’ve given them all the tools they can travel with.”
Baldwin added: “Recovery is a massive part of our world, and the biggest factor is consistency – all the best players are consistent in their recovery. Percussive therapy is a tool we use in the whole recovery process alongside things like nutrition and ice baths.
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“There are so many different factors that go into why someone recovers so everyone’s process will be individual to them. When we got the Therabody products we didn’t force them on every player, but let them figure out by themselves if the products worked as part of their recovery process. We educated them on how the products worked but ultimately left them to self-discover.
“It was crazy how quickly things snowball from the players speaking and observing each other. With the JetBoots in particular, as soon as some of the players saw the lack of a wire they were all keen to try it out. When we travel, the boots are so much easier to use which made a lot of people interested in them. The guys are creatures of comfort and ease.”
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