Liverpool confirm appointment of staff member focused on injury prevention

Frigyes Vanden Auweele joined Liverpool as head of osteopathy last year, with his main goal “to enhance performance and reduce the risk of injury.”

Vanden Auweele has been appointed on a full-time basis having worked for a number of different sports teams in years gone by, such as Belgian Pro League side Oud-Heverlee Leuven and cycling team Trek-Segafredo.

News of his arrival at Liverpool was first reported by the Athletic‘s James Pearce last July, but the club have now made his appointment official.

He works under head of recovery and performance Dr Andreas Schlumberger as part of the club’s medical department who, in the club’s words “aim to identify, treat and prevent issues in the athlete’s body by focusing on the dysfunction of the locomotor system and the peripheral and autonomic nervous system” with a focus on “enhancing performance and reducing the risk of injury.”

Vanden Auweele’s first few months at the club will certainly have been busy, with the Reds struggling with an ever-increasing injury list throughout the 2022/23 campaign.

Diogo Jota, Virgil van Dijk and Roberto Firmino have recently returned from long-term problems, with Luis Diaz also closing in on fitness, but the likes of Ibrahima Konate, Thiago and Calvin Ramsay have picked up fresh injuries in recent weeks.

“I was asked to come [to Liverpool],” Vanden Auweele is quoted as saying on the club’s website.

“First they didn’t tell me which team. I was pretty busy already and I didn’t know which team it was but when I heard which team it was I couldn’t say no.

? #LFC have confirmed the appointment of Frigyes Vanden Auweele as Head of Osteopathy.

He actually began work in the summer, under Head of Fitness Andreas Schlumberger.

Vanden Auweele, who previously worked with Belgian side OH Leuven, is focused on…injury prevention. pic.twitter.com/KUo8hZLOG2

— Jack Lusby (@LusbyJack) February 15, 2023

“Obviously as a sports therapist, as a sports osteopath it’s the highest you can get. Trek-Segafredo was also a world team so I worked with very, very high athletes, world athletes. But this is something else.

“Also, that I can do my thing full-time here is also new for me because I was working as a consultant, which means I give advice and then I cannot follow up on it all the time. That’s new for me that I can do the sports osteopathy thing and I can follow up on that.

“That’s also very valuable for me: not only give the advice but also do the treatments and follow up on the treatments.”

Jurgen Klopp is said to have been left angry by recent stories suggesting that Andreas Kornmayer, the club’s head of fitness, has been a problem individual among his staff, with reports of “friction” within the medical department.

Liverpool will be soon be welcoming a number of other staff members into new roles, with William Spearman set to replace Ian Graham as director of research, and the club also seeking a replacement for outgoing sporting director Julian Ward.