Andriy Yarmolenko: The inside story on his long journey back to fitness at West Ham

How altitude chambers, anti-gravity treadmills and dogged determination helped Andriy Yarmolenko recuperate from serious injury to become one of their Premier Leagues superstar players…
Andriy Yarmolenko continues to be instrumental in the rise of West Ham to fifth in the table and is light the Premier League.
His manager, Manuel Pellegrini, described him as aspecial player later he followed targets against Norwich and Manchester United with a refined finish against Bournemouth past weekend. He is carrying us at times, stated team-mate Ryan Fredericks, that plays him on the perfect flank.
But this fine form has been hard fought for.
A little under 12 months Yarmolenko, 29, suffered a ruptured Achilles as he strove to make a turn against Tottenham. Its an infrequent but severe harm for a footballer. That it was a cruel blow. Just a few weeks following having a proceed into West Ham and the Premier League that he was facing months on the sidelines.
Here, with the help of Richard Collinge, Head of Medical in West Ham, we advise the story of Yarmolenkos long struggle back to fitness…
I believe you understand straight away when someone goes down with an injury like this, that its a nasty one. Whenever we got around the pitch we understood he had been in a great deal of distress and the player, in that situation, is in a good deal of shock
The expression on the face of his own team-mates underlined the seriousness of the accident, even before Collinge and his team came on the scene, while Yarmolenko clutched in his leg.
You do not find a ruptured Achilles which frequently, Collinge told Sky Sports. Ive been in and about football for 20 years now and I believe I have seen two in my career. They are infrequent but theyre big injuries.
Mindful of the gravity of the accident knew they had to act.
His wife was at the game, so we introduced her down into the living room and explained the significance of the harm. Andriy was shocked and disappointed. Hewished to earn a terrific first impression andd come to some other team from the Premier League. It was only October and that opportunity was removed from him.
We put him in a protective boothe gave him crutches and sent off him for an MRI scan, which confirmed our fears hed ruptured his Achilles. With these ruptures that you need to run as quickly as possible. That was a Saturday and from first-thing Monday morning Andriy had undergone surgery in London to fix the tendon.
Following the hours after the injury, Yarmolenko needed to face up to the possibility of several long months of recovery work.
After the surgery, the hurt right leg of Yarmolenko has been kept in a boot that just came off stretching exercises. During this slow period, his morale was equally as important as his physical recovery.
Watching the other players venture out coaching every day was hard for them, explained Collinge. For him during that first 10 week period following the accident, we were attempting to be really positive . Andriy is a positive personality so that helped, but the supervisor the gamers and the coaching staff were fantastic .
We have a participant care staff at the club also who ensured Andriy along with his family knew we were here as a staff and club to give him every support possible, by chatting to a psychologist to reaching out to staff hes used formerly from the Ukraine. Theteam-behind-the-team ethic helped to get Andriy straight back to where he is now.
Collinge and the coaching staff were eager to keep Yarmolenko as active as possible to keep his affliction. There was gym work for his upper body and also to increase his pulse and hydrotherapy to keep him in shape.
Yarmolenko was set a set of targets. The main thing Ive learnt over the years is that you give the participant realistic mark of the way the rehabilitation programme is going to look and put them goals within that period of time, said Collinge. You have to ensure that the player buys into that.
Buy into it he did. There were early starts and long hours in the Rush Green training base of West Ham but the attitude of Yarmolenko remained steadfast. Even in the seasons conclusion, if his team-mates had gone off on vacation, Yarmolenko came daily to continue his battle back to fitness .
His remedy was extensive and employed technology. In an altitude chamber, Yarmolenko rode inactive bikes, exercised on a cross-trainer and ran in an anti-gravity treadmill.
Andriy has been doing work at a simulated setting of 3000m altitude, clarified Collinge. That worked his heart and lungs more challenging, and so when he came back into this pitch his fitness wasnt depleted too far. He would do high-intensity job on the bicycle as well as from December, we slowly increased the weight his body was posture as he ran to the treadmill.
Whilst massage and muscle stimulators helped fortify muscles body fat checks and regular weigh-ins tracked the illness of Yarmolenko, meetings with the team nutritionist substituted his diet.
After a morning at the altitude chamber, extra work with the strength and conditioning trainers followed in the afternoon and weekly rowing courses helped with versatility.
Every player wants to get back as promptly as possible and we want to ease that safely, explained Collinge. Altitude chambers, cryotherapy chambers, muscle stimulators, shockwave machines, you can name it, theres a good deal of info and equipment out there. Were always trying to obtain these benefits to get the player back on the pitch quicker and safer and in a more effective manner.
West Ham manager Pellegrini kept a close eye on this procedure. Yarmolenko may have been ruled out for the period but, just like injured players at the center, Pellegrini insisted still being included in team meetings and made to feel part of the group.
Mr Pellegrini enjoys to be kept abreast of what is happening with the injured players, explained Collinge. I meet him every single morning and speak through each player, whether theyre healthy or not. The manager also sees the gamers in the treatment space, hell come in and ask how theyre getting on.
He keeps communication open with players that are injured because the player still needs to feel a part of the club and concerned. Mr Pellegrini and his staff are excellent at doing this. The gamers do not feel left out or moved into the side because they are hurt
Yarmolenkos job on the treadmill increased his strength through December and come January that he was prepared to return to running on grass.
The approach was slow, steady, methodical. Straight line running evolved into predominant work and from April he was able to join his team-mates for a few non-contact sessions before, eventually, in May, contact training. But that wasnt the roads end.
When you set a player back into contact sessions, then you need to build up his assurance, said Collinge. Theres nothing like training to achieve that. There is only so much we could do in a rehab setting before you unleash the player right into a full-contact session also he has to be exposed to the stresses and strains which instruction exerts on this sidewalk.
Yarmolenko responded well and, had the Premier League season stretched into June, he would have been back in action for West Ham. However, given the time of his recovery, Pellegrini along with the medical team agreed it would be best to go easy and guarantee Yarmolenko was 100 per cent for July 1, the onset of pre-season.
That meant , together with West Hams initial group heading off for their vacations after attaining a top-half end in the league, Yarmolenko had to find other people to train with.
We kept an U23s training group back later especially to assist Andriy, therefore that he could do extra training together, explained Collinge. He also went back to Ukraine and also did a little practice with the national group, even though we had been very much commanding that coaching to be sure he did not do too much too soon.
With his own holidays reduced to just a short break along with his family, Yarmolenkos summer continued to focus on his rehabilitation.
Theyre the sacrifices you have to make, said Collinge. People think the season ends mid-May, but for the medical team, the sports science team we provide a service throughout the summer and Andriy was in for most of the summer
When July 1 arrived Yarmolenko was prepared for action – and now hes reaping the rewards for his hard work.
The rehabilitation shouldnt be taken lightly since its a procedure that requires an awful bunch of purchase, and it is testament to Andriy that he came through it so well, said Collinge. It takes a large number of psychological robustness and pleasure to get back playing at that level again.
The hard work still lasts. We do not get complacent. The demands of the Premier League are enormous these days, emotionally and physically, and keeps him to the pitch when a player such as Andriy has been injured that they need to do work that helps.
But he is a fantastic professional. He has been a sponge within the past 12 months and carried on board the advice my staff have handed him and its extremely satisfying to see him playing the way he is.
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