Rob Price, the head of medicine and performance at Leeds United, provided a detailed analysis of the function his division plays in new hires.
Head of Medicine and Performance at Leeds United, Rob Price, says his team will make every effort to ascertain a player’s high-risk status before he joins the Whites. He will then report the results to the management and board, who will ultimately decide whether to sign a player. The idea that a player may flunk a medical is somewhat of a fiction.
We definitely check up on all the players before they arrive, Price said to the Official Leeds United Podcast. With some of the work we’re doing with the new ownership group and the additional analytics we now have at our disposal, we hope to enhance that even further.
They are in the scanner for a few hours while we scan their back, pelvis, hips, knees, and ankles. After that, we look over that. After that, they spend more time with the medical personnel, who examines them physically.
“We compile all of that information and attempt to create a risk profile for that player to present to the board. Has he failed a medical, you hear others say? Everyone has a risk when they are signed, thus no one actually fails a physical; the question is which risk the club is willing to take.
“After discussing it with the manager and the board, they make a decision. We may say, “Look, this player is high risk. He has only participated in 50% of the games over the last two years. On his scan, we discovered this in his knee, and it has a percentage chance of getting worse over this period of time. Are you willing to take that risk?”
“That might then be the subject of new discussions, and the contract provisions relating to when they play might alter. To attempt and make it a safer process for the club and prevent them from signing somebody who is particularly weak, we simply provide all that information back.
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