10 Reasons Why Burnley Are Unexpectedly Back In The Premier League
8. Mark Howard And The Avoidance Of Injuries
In truth there were two major injuries but they were not until the final stages of the season, and Danny Ings did come back for the final games. The relatively injury-free squad was the result of the work of Mark Howard, the Head of Sports Science, who learned his trade at Bolton Wanderers under Sam Allardyce when Bolton was in the forefront of sports science. Burnleys squad was small and therefore vulnerable and yet promotion was achieved with just 23 players of whom three made just one appearance. In effect Burnley won promotion with just 20 players and game after game had an unchanged side. They had the same starting line-up more than any other club in the top divisions. Mark Howards mantra was "any injury is too many injuries": it was as if he saw an injury as a personal failure. His pledge to Dyche was that he would make players available as often as possible and as fit as possible. In training the target was to work so hard that an actual match would feel easy. Nutrition played a huge part. Treatment was as much to do with prevention as cure.
