Pearce putting players through their paces

Of all the signings made by new Derry City manager Kenny Shiels at the Brandywell in the close season, Pearce Lafferty could prove to be the most important of all.

The Derry City fitness instructor will be hard at work behind the scenes again next season as he attempts to drive the players to the peak of their ability and their fitness.

By preventing injuries before they occur, Lafferty’s work behind the scenes could well pay dividends as Shiels aims to make his first season in charge at the Brandywell a successful one.

Lafferty has been hard at work with the players in regular sessions at the Foyle Arena in recent weeks and he has already won the trust and admiration of the City manager.

Lafferty explained what his work entails, stating: “The benefits is it reduces the risk of injury and increases their performance and the hope is that we have all the players on the field all year round.

“The players have trained three or four days a week and as a result their strength and endurance has gone up and hopefully coming into pre-season there will be no injuries so every player can take part.”

The Candy Stripes have not had their sorrows to seek when it comes to injuries in recent seasons and Lafferty revealed that his approach – which focuses on individuals rather than the group as a whole, can benefit the entire team.

“Because I have a Masters in strength and conditioning they are getting top class science,” he explained. “I don’t know what techniques they were using before but since I’ve come in we haven’t had a lot of injuries.

“Myself and the physio Michael Hegarty screen the players before they lift a weight. They are all tested medically and any imbalances they have are all corrected through a rehab programme plus a performance programme with me.

“We have our GPS working so whatever calories they burn in the session, we equal it in the diet plus if a player needs more weight on we put that in the diet, and the GPS records all that. That builds their strength and endurance throughout the season.”