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Football Fatigue: Effects on Players and Strategies for Recovery

17 min Read

Learn how to manage football fatigue with insights on causes, effects, and strategies for recovery. Discover how Hudl tools can support player performance

What is Football Fatigue?

Fatigue in sports can broadly be defined as a reversible decline of physical or cognitive performance that occurs during or after exercise, despite a maintenance or increase in perception of effort. 

It can manifest either during a task, in the hours and days that follow intense training or competition, or on a more chronic level from the accumulation of stressors over a longer period of time with insufficient recovery.

Despite being such a common phenomenon that everyone has experienced, fatigue is a complex and multifaceted topic that has long been studied in scientific literature. 

There are multiple potential mechanisms of fatigue, and factors such as muscle damage, impairments within the central nervous system (CNS), accumulation of metabolites, dehydration, elevated core body temperature, and depletion of fuel stores have all been associated with decreased sports performance. Any one, or a combination of these factors likely contributes to fatigue which can be dependent on the demands of the sport or task. 

Specifically in football, it has been shown that players often experience a loss of physical performance towards the end of each half, which is synonymous with an increase in injury rates during the later stages. It can typically take up to 72 – 96 hours to recover after a 90-minute match, and this can be amplified when we start to consider the high volume and intensity of training, travel, and other stressors that players will experience throughout a competitive season. 

It is important to note that training-induced fatigue isn’t always a bad thing when we consider the training process as a whole. At times, fatigue will be an unavoidable outcome of a training session as it drives positive adaptations to exercise. Once athletes are given enough time to recover from their temporary loss of performance, they will likely improve their fitness levels in the long term. If we always avoided fatigue, we would never get fitter. Therefore, it is important to balance fitness, fatigue, and recovery through a well-designed training programme, knowing when to push harder and pull back at the right times. 

Causes and Effects of Fatigue in Football Players

In this section, we break down the causes and effects of fatigue in football players into two primary categories – physical and cognitive. However, it is important to note that the two will likely be related as the brain is a powerful governor of everything we do. 

Physical Demands of Modern Football

The physical demands of football matches have been studied extensively. Throughout a full match, it has been shown that elite outfield players will typically cover between 9 – 13 km of total distance, 500 – 1200 m of high-speed running (>19.8 km/h) and 100 – 450 m of sprinting (>25.2 km/h), which is dependent on playing position.

The actions that are most associated with physical fatigue in footballers are repeated high-intensity muscle contractions – such as sprints, accelerations, decelerations, sharp changes of direction, jumps, and body contact. Furthermore, these actions all have a high potential for inducing muscle damage and soreness in the hours and days that follow. 

Congested match schedules also contribute to physical fatigue – some players compete in more than 60 fixtures throughout a season. As mentioned earlier, recovery from a match can take up to 3 days, and when we consider many teams will compete in 2 to 3 fixtures per week, recovery time can be insufficient. 

If physical fatigue is not managed appropriately, there can be significant consequences including underperformance and an increased risk of muscle strains and other injuries. 

Cognitive Demands and Mental Fatigue

Cognitive, or mental fatigue occurs in football players due to the consistent high-pressure decision-making that takes place, high performance expectations from coaches and staff, external pressure from supporters as well as long travel schedules.

The effects of cognitive fatigue on football players are slower reaction times, impaired decision-making, emotional burnout and a loss of concentration during critical, match-defining moments.

How to Identify Player Fatigue in Football

There are a number of ways in which teams can gather valuable insights into the effects of fatigue in football players. 

Teams are recommended to implement a diligent monitoring strategy that measures not only the physical output of each player (i.e., the ‘dose’) but also the magnitude of fatigue they experience and the time course of recovery (i.e., the ‘response’). 

Choosing valid and reliable measurements and assessing this at an individual level is also important, as every athlete can respond differently depending on a multitude of factors such as their physical characteristics, diet, and lifestyle. 

Screening tools such as subjective questionnaires, tests of muscle function, and biomarkers to gather insights into physiological processes can all be used to determine the athlete's condition and inform decisions about training design and recovery strategies. 

Another tool that can be very useful in this area is wearable technology. 

Monitoring the physical activity of each athlete during every single training session and game can give coaches and practitioners invaluable data which can be leveraged to manage fatigue.

Noticing a trend of reduced physical output from your players over a period of time could be an indication of fatigue. However, it is important to remember that football match-play is not standardized – it essentially involves 22 players on the field all interacting with each other in response to varying stimuli. So how can we be sure it is down to fatigue in this case? 

One way, recommended by Hudl Solutions Consultant Will Sparkes PhD, is to assess the player’s response to a standardized, consistent, and controlled format, such as during team training. For example, you can deliver the same warm-up or standardized run at various time points throughout the season, and if you’re noticing drop-offs in that player's physical capability despite similar levels of effort, this could give you an indication that they are experiencing fatigue and a modification of training loads may be required. 

Heart rate can also be a useful indicator of fatigue. If an athlete's heart rate is steadily increasing throughout a training session or a match despite a decline in physical output, that would be a sign that the player is fatigued and they might benefit from being given rest or substituted. 

Within the WIMU ecosystem, heart rate variability (HRV)- a classic physiological marker of stress - can also be monitored over time to assess how an athlete is responding to the training process.  

In the next section, we look at tools that can be used to accurately measure your player’s workload to help manage the effect of football fatigue. 

WIMU Pro combines wearable hardware with integrated software to provide a full ecosystem of athlete monitoring.

GPS Wearables Tracking Player Workload

The leading product in athlete monitoring systems is WIMU Pro, which combines wearable trackers with integrated software, providing a full ecosystem of athlete monitoring to help you ensure athletes are fit, healthy and available to play.

WIMU devices generate up to 20k data points per second across 250+ variables - for every athlete. This data can be visualized in real-time, and leveraged to help you objectively manage the fatigue levels of your athletes throughout the season. 

WIMU is the athlete monitoring component of Hudl Pro Suite, which is a fully integrated system that provides captureanalysisscouting and review.

The Hudl Pro Suite ecosystem: Capture, analysis and review solutions, all within fully-integrated system.

Video Analysis to Identify Fatigue-Related Performance Drops

WIMU Pro can provide the physical data you need to manage athlete fitness, health and performance, but to take it to the next level, it's recommended to provide additional context via integration with video analysis tools

Visual Assessment of Movement Mechanics 

A well-trained observer could notice a difference in the running mechanics of a player or an inability to reach the desired location on the pitch due to physical constraints as a result of fatigue. These observations can explain why something happened during the game and provide feedback to guide training strategies and preventative measures.

Skill Execution Under Fatigue

If you're seeing players making unforced mistakes, such as misplaced passes, shots, missed tackles, or poor touches, one explanation may be that they have undergone an intense period of physical activity in the build-up to that moment. For example, did the player just run multiple high-intensity sprints in the last five minutes, or was it simply a lapse in concentration or lack of technical ability? This method adds evidence to back up the coach's perspective and can be used as part of the post-match review process using Hudl or Sportscode.

WIMU x Sportscode integration

The most seamless workflow of combining physical data with video is through the Hudl Pro-Suite - integrating WIMU  with Hudl Sportscode. This new workflow enables physical data from WIMU to be visualized through video, and broken down into small, consumable clips for analysts to interpret and for coaches and players to review as part of their journey to constantly improve and win.

Lion City Sailors FC are one of the earliest adopters of this new workflow. From a sports science perspective, the ability to combine physical data and video analysis allows the Lion City staff to really hone in on whether their players are exerting themselves correctly on the pitch and then using that data to make adjustments to training plans, if necessary. 

The live nature of the data also enables real-time decisions during the game, such as assessing the high-speed efforts of each player to determine whether they can expect the player to push harder, or if fatigue has set in and a substitution needs to be made.

 Data-Informed Training Modifications

One of the most simple yet effective ways for teams to manage the effects of fatigue in football players is to have a well-structured training periodisation model that they follow, and then adjust this based on the data they receive.

This approach should involve scheduling enough periods of recovery within the training week to ensure players are getting the downtime that they need to perform at the highest possible levels on match day. However, on strategically targeted days, players should undergo planned hard training sessions to induce fatigue. This ensures their fitness levels are maintained or increased, and that they are adequately prepared for the demands of competition. It's equally important to balance that with lower-intensity days to allow the players to ‘bounce back’ from fatigue. Without this balance, fatigue could become maladaptive and put players at increased risk of injury or underperformance. 

The data generated from WIMU helps you make better decisions around training design and modifications. As a coach, how do you know if you’re hitting your planned loads for the session unless you have a way of objectively measuring it? Are your ‘hard’ training sessions truly intense, and your ‘easy’ sessions sufficiently restorative? What types of physical actions are your players making during training? These are questions that WIMU help you answer. Automated dashboards within the WIMU Cloud containing fully customised visualizations can help you interpret your data, and set up the way you want. 

In addition, the live data that WIMU provides can help you make decisions in real-time to manage the physical performance and fatigue of the players. Live monitoring software like SVIVO allows you to visualize up to 40 physical and physiological variables on the side of the field on a laptop, tablet, or smartwatch interface. All of these can be leveraged to help you make instant modifications to the training session or the game as it happens. 

Getting Player Feedback and Self-Reports

A common monitoring technique used to measure football fatigue in the professional game is for coaching teams to ask players to fill out a questionnaire every morning before training to receive feedback on what condition they perceive they’re in. Collecting information such as how each player has slept, how sore their muscles are, if they are stressed, and what their overall well-being score is, can all be really helpful in determining how recovered their athletes are, which can then inform any tweaks to the training programme if necessary.  This process also fosters proactive communication, enabling constructive conversations to help the player through any issues or niggles they may be facing. 

Another classical self-report measure is the rating of perceived exertion (RPE). This is a rating scale given out after each training session to give the players an opportunity to provide feedback on how hard they found each session or match. Although subjective, RPE provides incredibly useful information for coaches into athlete’s perceived exertion levels. When combined with objective data from wearables, it can fill in a big piece of the puzzle which is training load monitoring. 

The information collected from player feedback questionnaires can be imported into the WIMU Cloud so that both the subjective and objective data can be blended together to give a complete picture. 

Figure to show the hypothetical interaction between fitness, fatigue and performance during the training process.

Strategies to Manage and Mitigate Fatigue

As mentioned earlier, a key strategy for managing and mitigating fatigue is to have a well-structured and rational training programme. This means that when setting up your training programme, you're giving your players a blend of stimuli to improve fitness but balanced with enough recovery time at the right times. The physical data you need to create these training programs can be generated from WIMU wearables that players wear during every training session and match.

There are various other strategies that can be used in an attempt to accelerate the recovery process. Some common protocols used in elite sports and beyond are hot and cold water therapy, cryotherapy, nutritional interventions, compression garments, electrical stimulation techniques, low-intensity aerobic exercise, as well as stretching and massage. 

However, as Will Sparkes PhD points out, “sleep, nutrition and hydration are the three most important things to get right. These take care of the basics you need to restore muscle function after intense exercise. Additional recovery strategies can be worth exploring as long as they do no harm, but it’s important to get the basics right first and not lose sight of the big rocks, otherwise, you’re missing the biggest pieces of the picture.”

Optimize Recovery Time Between Matches

Optimizing recovery time can be challenging depending on how heavily packed your fixture schedule is. If you’re competing in two or three fixtures per week, it’s recommended to get an understanding of the physical strengths and limitations of each of your players individually. By analyzing your dashboards in WIMU Pro, you can proactively understand the load of your players going into games and which ones may or may not be able to tolerate the additional load of the next game. This helps the coach make strategic decisions around squad rotation and team selection, prioritising which games are coming up and which are most important for the success of the team. 

Within the WIMU Cloud, users can simulate load using our load simulator calculator to help them plan for the upcoming matches. 

Creating a detailed assessment of each player’s physical output after fixtures is also important to understanding how fatigued they might be in the days following the game. For example, if your winger has doubled their sprint distance meters in a particular game (from 250 to 500m), they may experience additional fatigue in the hours and days that follow, and require more recovery time than usual. Practitioners can also use the individual data to inform and tailor more aggressive recovery strategies to help them recover in time for the next match.

Nutrition and Hydration Protocols for Recovery

Food intake:

Eating a well-balanced diet consisting of sufficient macro and micronutrients is imperative to support recovery after hard training and matches. Professional teams will often employ a specialised sports nutritionist or dietician to work individually with the players to personalise their nutritional intakes to their needs. 

While acknowledging individual dietary needs can vary depending on individual goals and any health conditions, it is generally recommended that footballers increase carbohydrate and protein intake around hard sessions, especially after matches. Carbohydrates act as the primary fuel source for high-intensity exercise, and it has been shown that muscle glycogen stores can be depleted after a 90-minute match, so refuelling with carbohydrates within proximity to post-game is important to help restore muscle glycogen. Good post-game carbohydrate options include sweet potato, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, as well as a varied mix of fruits and vegetables. 

Protein is also a very important macronutrient for any athlete as it supports muscle repair. Post-match, footballers should opt for lean protein sources such as grilled chicken, turkey breast, fish, and legumes to kick-start the repair process. For convenience, especially when travelling or with irregular schedules, protein supplements are also commonly used in elite sports to assist athletes in getting enough protein to support recovery, at the right times. 

Hydration:

As dehydration can severely compromise physical and cognitive performance, footballers should ensure they consume enough fluids throughout the training week and be especially aware of this in the build-up to match day, particularly when competing in hot environments. Consuming enough water in the days leading up to a match, during the half-time period, at intermittent periods within the match (where stoppages allow), and post-match is imperative to support homeostasis and every function in the human body. Electrolyte drinks can also be a good option for this to avoid excessive loss of crucial compounds as a result of sweating and dehydration. 

"Sleep, nutrition and hydration are the three most important things to get right. These take care of the basics you need to restore muscle function after intense exercise". Will Sparkes PhD: Solutions Consultant, Hudl.

Science-Based Sleep Management Techniques

Getting sufficient quantity and quality of sleep is a crucial pillar in the recovery process, as this is the period where the majority of repair and restoration happens.  While individuals will need varying amounts of sleep, it is generally recommended that athletes get at least 7 – 9 hours every night. There are a range of techniques that can be used to optimize sleep:

  • A focus on sleep ‘hygiene’, such as keeping your bedroom quiet, and dark, regulating temperature, and using earplugs or night masks if needed.  
  • Having a consistent schedule of sleep and wake times. 
  • Avoiding artificial light and electronic devices within an hour before bed.
  • Implementing ‘winding down’ protocols. 
  • Avoiding caffeine within 8 hours before bedtime. 
  • Avoid eating a large meal within two to three hours before bedtime. 
  • Managing stress

Daytime naps can also be a useful tool if required, and it is recommended to limit these to 30-90 min to avoid negatively impacting subsequent sleep patterns. 

Managing and Monitoring Match Rotation and Training Loads

When encountering the challenge of fixture congestion, managing and monitoring player rotation and training loads is extremely important to avoid player fatigue. 

Using WIMU’s GPS monitoring system, coaches and analysts can assess a player's training load leading into games. You can then leverage the data generated from WIMU to proactively plan for your upcoming matches. So, if you have four games scheduled in the next two weeks, you can be alert to the fatigue levels of your players and rotate your squad based on the timing of your next fixture, as well as benchmark players’ physical output over the last few months. 

Hartpury University are an elite sporting nursery, who gain data-driven insights from WIMU and the Hudl Pro Suite across multiple sports.

Collaborating with Sports Scientists for Continuous Improvement

Having an expert at hand can help guide your team or organization in the area of preventing player fatigue and optimizing performance. 

Hudl’s team of Solutions Consultants are experts in their field with a collective of over 300 years of experience across a range of sporting codes. 

With our support, we provide tools to help manage player's fatigue and improve team performance through the implementation and optimization of the tools in the Hudl Pro Suite. For example, in the field of preventing player fatigue,  we help teams get the most out of WIMU Pro and set up bespoke dashboards to measure sporting demands according to specific needs.

Building a Fatigue-Resilient Team Culture with Hudl’s Support

Take a closer look at how Hudl’s team of Solutions Consultants can help you. Our Pro Services team have hundreds of years of combined world class experience and expertise solving the biggest challenges in elite sport.

To first take a look at how WIMU Pro can optimize your team’s ability to measure physical performance and manage fatigue, you can visit the following links:

WIMU Pro homepage

WIMU Pro hardware specs

WIMU Pro advanced athlete tracking system