ARSENAL stars have been working harder than anyone to maintain their fitness in the coronavirus lockdown.
A leaderboard on top of the range fitness tracking app STATSports has been dominated by Gunners stars.
Tierney has worked harder than anyone else during the coronavirus lockdownCredit: Getty Images – Getty
And it is Kieran Tierney – who has not played since dislocating his shoulder in December – who comes out on top.
Sky Sports have done a piece explaining how clubs have been able to monitor their players’ fitness during the pandemic.
The app works by syncing with a vest the player wears when they go on their run, automatically tracking their distances, speed, high-speed running, step balance and acceleration.
One of the most important categories is high metabolic load distance (HMLD), which measures how intense the running load is.
The metric records the total amount of high speed running an athlete does, coupled with the total distance of accelerations and decelerations throughout a session.
And it is Tierney who covered the most distance at the highest intensity, with 10,333m in the past week alone.
In fact, Arsenal players occupied three of the top five spots at the time of writing.
Hector Bellerin was second on 9,414m and Eddie Nketiah fourth on 9,373m
Burnley’s James Tarkowski was third on 9,398m.
Part of the beauty of the app is it allows top-flight footballers to be compared against non-professionals or those lower down the leagues.
For example, Windsor FC player Ben Mulley came fifth on the table with 9,339m.
Not all players allow for their data to be shown, however.
Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City all use STATSports.
So fitness coaches there will have been checking the app to see how their players are getting on.
Of course, there is no substitute for seeing it with the naked eye.
And Jose Mourinho has been doing just that in Zoom sessions with his Spurs players.
The Tottenham squad – including fit-again striker Harry Kane and captain Hugo Lloris – all clock in for work virtually before doing a series of training sessions.
Arsenal stars leave training as they become first Premier League club to return after 47 days of isolation
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
