Arsenal fitness guru Darren Burgess to consult with Australian A-league expansion side

Fitness guru | Burgess will remain in place at Arsenal
Arsenal FC via Getty Images
James Benge31 July 2018

It has emerged that Arsenal’s director of high performance Darren Burgess will be working with Australian club Southern Expansion in an advisory capacity.

Standard Sport understands the appointment, made earlier in July by the Sydney side, who hope to be part of an expanded A-League, will have no impact on Burgess’ full-time role at Arsenal.

Burgess joined Arsenal in June 2017 and is widely considered one of the world’s top fitness experts, having worked at Liverpool, Aussie Rules side Port Adelaide and the Australian national team in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup.

The 44-year-old will work as Southern’s High Performance Technical Advisor from London alongside the club’s head of football, former Australia international and Crystal Palace midfielder Craig Foster.

“Darren has worked at some of the biggest clubs in both football and AFL and to have him joining Southern is a coup and it further strengthens the solid coaching and operational framework our Club already has in place,” Southern chief executive Chris Gardiner said today.

“Working with Craig, his main priority will be to develop a high-performance structure for the club, providing support and advice for our coaches and technical staff on training routines; technical analysis; and injury prevention and recovery, with the aim of giving our players the best chance of achieving their best performances.

“Given his wealth of experience in both Australia and the UK, Darren will mentor and train our coaches and allow us to leverage his international networks and tap-in to the very latest, cutting-edge sports science research.”

Burgess has undertaken a significant overhaul of Arsenal’s fitness work since his appointment just over a year ago, most notably hiring one of the brains behind Candy Crush in Mikhail Zhilkin to use data to optimise performance and minimise injuries in Unai Emery’s first team.

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