Flamengo has become a national and international benchmark in athlete preparation, and the results are evident on the field. After finishing 2016 as the club with the fewest injuries in the Brazilian Championship, the beloved club continues its work in injury prevention and recovery in 2017.

In an exclusive interview with Flamengo's official website, physical trainer Daniel Gonçalves explained the methodology of CEP FLA, Flamengo's Center of Excellence in Performance. The member of the coaching staff also took the opportunity to describe specific cases of players from the current squad who received special attention in their physical preparation.

"As is well known, Flamengo has recently invested in scientific and technological tools that allow us to have more adequate monitoring of training load and also of games. We have noticed an evolution in the high-intensity actions of our players, and also in relation to Brazilian football players, if we compare them with the Brazilian championships of 2013 and 2014, by 30% in these elevations. Playing twice a week for a prolonged period, obviously these athletes do not recover satisfactorily. So, we have sought to monitor fatigue and performance levels of these players, based on body composition, high-intensity actions in games, as well as other markers, such as biochemical and hematological ones - in this case, creatine kinase, an enzyme indicative of muscle microlesions. We also have thermography, to see the inflammatory responses of the muscle, in addition to the playing time."

Athlete relay
When we notice that an athlete is more prone to injuries or even experiencing a decrease in performance based on the monitoring we use during games, we suggest to the coach and the rest of the technical staff that the athlete be rested in order to maintain a high level of performance. All these actions are intended to guide the coach. Obviously, the team selection is also based on the strategy that Flamengo will need to implement in the games according to what the opponent will present. Therefore, analyzing all these situations, the coach selects his team. It's worth remembering that all these actions have been satisfactory to the point that, in this first semester, we have a success rate of around 70%, which is considered good for a club aiming to win titles.

Last year, even with constant travel, we managed to do preventative work, so we were the team with the fewest injuries throughout the season. This year, the CEP methodology has been consolidated. The goal is to maintain these low injury rates. Now, with our stadium, we tend to increase this efficiency even further, while still maintaining this low number of injuries. We are very confident that this CEP methodology will become even more established, maintaining the results achieved and winning titles.

This year we've held many training matches because we have a very capable, homogeneous, and numerous squad. This serves, among other things, to give rhythm to those who haven't been playing as frequently. This is the case with Conca, for example, who is in the development process, has participated in all the training matches, and has fulfilled the planned objectives. In this way, everyone has been playing and is close to their ideal rhythm when needed by the coach. The goal is always to have minimal fluctuations in the team's performance during matches.

He is in an evolutionary process. As is known, he had a very satisfactory season at Atlético Nacional last year, competing in the FIFA Club World Cup in December. This shortened his vacation period and, consequently, his recovery. Therefore, it cannot be expected that the athlete will reach the same level of performance at the same speed as the others. Even with the little time he had to rest after the World Cup, he arrived at the club in the pre-season to compete with Flamengo. Given this scenario, the CEP (Performance Evaluation Center) identified some immediate needs, such as improving the athlete's recovery after games and making some fine adjustments in terms of muscular and biomechanical balance. With specific training, Berrío has been evolving more and more each day, performing his football in a very satisfactory way, as seen in the match against Santos. He confided in us that in the Colombian Championship the games are not as intense and successive as here. In Brazil, all games are of high difficulty and complexity. This only further enhances the value of the CEP methodology.

He is in the final stages of post-injury recovery, more precisely in phase 5. He is being gradually reintegrated into the group, is already performing some exercises, and still needs fine-tuning of muscle rebalancing as well as some work on power, acceleration, and unpredictability. We believe that, by completing these final stages, he will be 100% and available to coach Zé Ricardo.

He has been training with the team. Due to his time off, he obviously lost conditioning, some lean mass, strength, and power. Consequently, he needed specific work to regain these qualities. In the practice match that took place last week, and during this week's training sessions, it was observed that he reached levels similar to those of a game and, therefore, he is available to coach Zé Ricardo.

The athlete left the game against Santos feeling pain in the front of his thigh. No injury was found. He has been doing specific work, both on the field and in the gym, and will be evaluated daily, with more demands placed on him as the week progresses. Today he participated in part of the training session with the group.

Both players are coming off the end of their season and had been training normally. It's clear they still need to readjust to Brazilian football, and that's a process. Football in Qatar isn't played with the same high intensity as in Brazil and other major world footballing centers. Everton has been able to perform well on the field, but he needs specific power and endurance training, which we've already been doing in a controlled manner. Gradually, with this training and inclusion in games, he should be able to last the full ninety minutes. Rhodolfo has also been doing special power training. He's a very strong athlete with a high body composition. He's already been able to last ninety minutes, but we need to accelerate his recovery time. The fact that one can play ninety minutes and the other can't is due to motor skills. Obviously, players who play on the wings, like Everton Ribeiro, are more challenged, while those who play in central positions cover shorter distances. This difference is evident in games and also in their training plans. 

With the periodic assessments we've been conducting at the CEP (Performance Evaluation Center), we seek to develop potential and try to improve weaknesses. With this sequence of games, the athlete often loses strength and muscle mass, directly interfering with performances. Therefore, we try to work according to Guerrero's characteristics in the games. He is an athlete who has contact with defenders and needs short bursts of speed. We have been doing these strength and power exercises, with a periodization appropriate to the games, and we have observed an improvement in Guerrero from 2017 compared to Guerrero from 2016. We expect him to further increase his performance throughout the current season.