The going gets tough

South Africa's big three football teams face a big few months of travel and match-time as the PSL, Nedbank Cup and Confederations Cup stretch their resources towards breaking point.

Whether breaking point is reached depends on how far they progress in the knockout competitions - and also on how they manage their squads and how effectively they apply best practice nutrition, training and recovery strategies.

Pirates' schedule this week illustrates the kind of situation the three will face in the coming months - they played a match on Saturday, undertook a four-hour bus trip to Bethlehem on Tuesday for an overnight camp before last night's match against Free State Stars, and then a four-hour bus trip back to Soweto immediately after the match.

They were scheduled to arrive in Johannesburg at 2 this morning, and then have two days to prepare for the Soweto derby.

And that's relatively straight-forward travel - heading into the rest of Africa increases the travel burden exponentially.

Chiefs, for instance, travel to Morocco, Pirates to Uganda and Sundowns to the Democratic Republic of Congo in their upcoming continental matches.

Player management is an issue often spoken of in rugby, and Super rugby players, in particular, face high-intensity challenges combined with international travel.

Football is no different - the physical impact and bruising may be less than that of rugby, but then rugby players aren't asked to perform three times a week, as the footballers are.

Physiologically, this is simply an unsustainable situation. Footballers cannot sustain their highest intensity on three separate occasions per week for a prolonged period.

The most advanced methods of recovery - post-match ice baths, compression treatments, nutrition - can only limit the effects. Post-match ice baths, for instance, reduce inflammation and accelerate recovery .

Rest and nutrition are not even debatable - failure to replenish and rest means failure to recover. That's why a strategy like that being used by Pirates this week is so risky - they were to travel home immediately after last night's match, the idea being that players can sleep at home (even if only getting there at 2am) and then train later than usual on Thursday.

The downside is a poor night's sleep plus compromised post-match nutrition and recovery on an uncomfortable bus trip.

Squad rotation to rest players is the only viable solution, but coaches sometimes lack the confidence to do this. They are accountable for results.

It becomes a case of picking battles - which matches require 100% and which can be negotiated at 80%? Similarly, training must be adjusted - the match becomes the training session, and certain players must be allowed to carry lesser loads in both matches and training.

Unfortunately, if coaches (and owners) attempt to push players to peak performance every time, breaking point will be reached and all will crash in failure.

Tucker is a sports scientist and high performance consultant