Every July and August, I see the same pattern repeat across football and rugby clubs in Chester, Liverpool, and the surrounding areas. Players turn up to pre-season after 4–6 weeks off, get thrown into double training sessions, and within two weeks someone’s pulled a hamstring or done their ACL.
Pre-season is where injuries are made or prevented. It’s the highest-risk period of the year because you’re asking a deconditioned body to suddenly cope with massive training loads. Get it right and you’ll be flying by September. Get it wrong and you’re watching from the sidelines.
A structured pre-season programme can reduce injuries by 30–50%. The key ingredients are progressive loading, movement screening, and sport-specific conditioning — starting 6-8 weeks before your season kicks off.
Here’s what actually works — backed by evidence, tested in the real world, and free from the usual pre-season nonsense about running yourself into the ground.
Why Pre-Season Is the Danger Zone
The problem is simple: your body adapts to what you give it. Six weeks on the sofa means your muscles, tendons, and bones have adapted to doing very little. Then you rock up to pre-season and suddenly you’re doing two-hour sessions, contact drills, and repeated sprints.
Your cardiovascular system can adapt relatively quickly — you’ll be blowing after the first few sessions, but within a week or two you’re back to normal. Your musculoskeletal system? That takes 6–12 weeks to properly adapt to new loads.
This mismatch is why hamstring injuries, ACL tears, and groin strains spike during pre-season. You feel fit enough to push hard, but your tissues aren’t ready for it yet. In my experience, the players who do some structured work over the summer are the ones still playing in November.
The FIFA 11+ — Your Non-Negotiable Starting Point
If you do nothing else, do the FIFA 11+ warm-up programme. It’s 20 minutes, requires no equipment, and reduces injury risk by 30–50% in footballers (Thorborg et al., 2017). That’s not me making numbers up — that’s from multiple studies across thousands of players.
The programme covers running drills, strength work (single-leg squats, planks, nordics), balance exercises, and plyometrics. It’s designed to target the most common football injuries: hamstrings, ACLs, ankles, and groins.
Rugby players can use it too, though you’ll want to add neck strengthening (more on that later). The principles are the same: prepare the muscles that get hammered during matches, improve control and stability, and gradually build load tolerance.
You can find the full FIFA 11+ online for free. I’ve seen Sunday league teams cut their injury rates in half just by doing this consistently before training. It works.
The 4 Non-Negotiable Exercises
Beyond the FIFA 11+, there are four exercises that should be in every footballer and rugby player’s pre-season programme. These target the areas that break most often.
Nordic Hamstring Curls
Eccentric hamstring strength is the single biggest predictor of hamstring injury risk. Start assisted (use a band or push with your hands), aim for 3 sets of 6–8 reps, twice per week. This exercise alone reduces hamstring injuries by up to 51%.
Copenhagen Adductor Exercise
Groin injuries account for 10–15% of all football injuries. The Copenhagen plank targets adductor strength and has been shown to reduce groin injury risk by 41%. Hold for 3 sets of 10–15 seconds per side.
Single-Leg Squats
ACL tears and knee injuries often come down to poor control during deceleration and change of direction. Single-leg squats build the stability you need. Focus on control over depth — 3 sets of 10 per leg, twice weekly.
Eccentric Calf Raises
Ankle sprains and calf strains can derail your season. Eccentric calf raises build resilience in the achilles and calf complex. Do these off a step, slow on the way down, 3 sets of 15 per leg.
These aren’t optional extras — they’re the foundation. Build them into your routine now and you’ll thank yourself when everyone else is pulling up injured six weeks into the season.
The Hamstring Epidemic (And How to Avoid It)
Let’s talk about hamstring injuries specifically, because they’re everywhere in football. Premier League teams lose thousands of player-days every season to hamstring strains, and Sunday league players are just as vulnerable.
The reason? Hamstrings get hammered during sprinting, deceleration, and kicking. They work eccentrically — lengthening under load — which is exactly the type of contraction that causes muscle damage if you’re not conditioned for it.
The fix is Nordic curls. I know they’re brutal, and I know most players skip them because they’re hard. But the evidence is overwhelming: teams that do Nordics consistently have 50% fewer hamstring injuries. That’s the difference between playing every week and missing half the season.
Start now. Use assistance if you need to. Build up gradually. By the time the season starts, you should be doing full Nordics comfortably. That’s your insurance policy.
ACL Prevention — Especially for Female Footballers
ACL injuries are career-altering. Nine months out, surgery, lengthy rehab, and even then you’re at higher risk of re-injury. Female footballers face 3–6 times the risk compared to males, largely due to biomechanical and hormonal factors.
The good news? ACL injuries are largely preventable with the right training. The FIFA 11+ includes ACL-specific exercises, but here’s what matters most:
- Single-leg strength and control — most ACL tears happen during landing or cutting on one leg. If you can’t control a single-leg squat, you’re vulnerable.
- Jump landing mechanics — land softly, knees tracking over toes, no knee valgus (knees collapsing inward). Practice this until it’s automatic.
- Deceleration drills — sprinting is fine, it’s the stopping and changing direction that’s risky. Train those patterns deliberately.
If you’re a female footballer, take ACL prevention seriously. The risk is real, but it’s not inevitable. Neuromuscular training programmes reduce ACL injury rates by up to 50% in women. Focus on single-leg strength, plyometric control, and proper landing mechanics. If you’re playing at a decent level, consider getting assessed — we can identify biomechanical risk factors and give you specific drills.
I’ve worked with female players across Cheshire and Cheshire, and the ones who take this stuff seriously stay on the pitch. Don’t wait until you’re injured to care about it.
Load Management — The Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio
This sounds complicated but it’s not. Your body can handle gradual increases in training load. What it can’t handle is sudden spikes.
The acute:chronic workload ratio compares what you did this week (acute load) to what you’ve been doing over the last 4 weeks (chronic load). If the ratio gets too high — you’re doing way more this week than your recent average — injury risk skyrockets.
In practical terms: don’t go from zero training to two sessions a day in week one of pre-season. Build up. If you’ve done nothing all summer, start with 3–4 sessions in week one, then gradually increase volume and intensity over 4–6 weeks.
This is especially important for contact sports like rugby. Your body needs time to adapt to the physical demands of tackling, scrummaging, and collision. Throwing yourself straight into full contact when you’ve been off for six weeks is asking for trouble.
Common Pre-Season Mistakes (That Will Break You)
I see these every year. Avoid them.
Going from zero to full training in week one. Your fitness will return faster than your tissue resilience. You’ll feel like you can handle the load, but your muscles, tendons, and ligaments aren’t ready. Result? Hamstring strains, groin tears, tendon issues. Build up gradually over 4–6 weeks. Your body will thank you.
Mistake #1: All cardio, no strength. Running yourself into the ground doesn’t prevent injuries. Strength work does (Lauersen et al., 2014 — BMJ study found strength training reduces sports injuries by 68%). You need both, but if you’re only doing fitness work, you’re missing the point.
Mistake #2: Ignoring niggles. That slight hamstring tightness or groin discomfort? It’s your body telling you something’s not right. Pushing through it in pre-season is how small issues become big injuries. Get it checked early, don’t wait until it’s blown.
Mistake #3: No baseline strength work before pre-season. If you turn up to pre-season having done nothing for six weeks, you’re already behind. Ideally, you should be doing 2–3 strength sessions per week through the off-season. Even bodyweight work is better than nothing.
Mistake #4: Skipping the warm-up. The FIFA 11+ isn’t just for show. It primes your nervous system, activates key muscle groups, and reduces injury risk. Skipping it to get to the “real” session is short-sighted.
Rugby-Specific Considerations
Rugby players face all the same risks as footballers, plus the added demands of contact, scrummaging, and the breakdown. Here’s what you need to add:
Neck strengthening — essential for front-row forwards, but everyone benefits. Weak neck muscles increase concussion risk and make you vulnerable in contact. Use resistance bands or manual resistance, 3–4 times per week, focusing on flexion, extension, and lateral movements.
Contact preparation — your body needs to re-adapt to the physical demands of tackling and rucking. Start with controlled contact drills and build up intensity gradually. Don’t save full contact for match day.
Concussion awareness — know the signs, know the protocols, and don’t rush back. Anyone promising you can “train through” a concussion is talking rubbish. Take it seriously.
Rugby players should also prioritise groin injuries and ankle and foot pain prevention — both are common in the sport and often under-addressed in pre-season.
A Simple 4-Week Pre-Season Template
Here’s a basic framework to get you started. This isn’t a full programme — it’s a starting point. Adjust based on your level, position, and individual needs.
| Week | Focus | Example Sessions |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Base conditioning | Aerobic fitness, bodyweight strength, mobility work |
| 3–4 | Progressive loading | Weighted exercises, change-of-direction drills |
| 5–6 | Sport-specific intensity | Match-tempo training, contact prep, reactive agility |
| 7–8 | Pre-competition | Full training loads, tactical sessions, taper for match readiness |
Week 1–2: Foundation
- 3–4 training sessions per week
- Focus: rebuild aerobic base, bodyweight strength, movement quality
- Include: FIFA 11+, Nordics (assisted), Copenhagen planks, single-leg work
- Avoid: high-intensity sprints, full contact (rugby), max efforts
Week 3–4: Build
- 4–5 sessions per week
- Add: speed work, plyometrics, sport-specific drills
- Increase: resistance on strength exercises, training duration
- Rugby: introduce controlled contact drills
Week 5–6: Intensity
- 5–6 sessions per week (including skills sessions)
- Closer to match intensity
- Include: small-sided games, position-specific work
- Rugby: progress to full contact
Throughout: Maintain
- 2 strength sessions per week minimum
- FIFA 11+ before every session
- Eccentric hamstring and adductor work twice weekly
- Listen to your body — back off if something doesn’t feel right
When to Get Help
If you’re picking up niggles during pre-season, don’t ignore them. That hamstring tightness, groin discomfort, or knee pain won’t magically disappear once the season starts — it’ll get worse.
We work with football and rugby players across Chester, Liverpool, and North Wales, helping them get through pre-season and into the season without breaking down. If something’s not right, get it assessed early. It’s easier to fix a minor issue in July than a blown hamstring in September.
Pre-season is where your season is made or broken. Do the boring stuff now — the strength work, the warm-ups, the load management — and you’ll be the one still playing when everyone else is injured. Skip it, and you’ll be watching from the sidelines wondering what went wrong.
Your choice.
