Barcelona boss Hansi Flick to miss out on preferred fitness coach after rejection | OneFootball

Barcelona have decided to shake up their fitness team this summer, following a season that involved a number of injuries to key players. However they will not be able to further appease manager Hansi Flick by bringing in his preferred replacement.

Head of Fitness Julio Tous was given full control of Barcelona’s physical preparation last summer, but after a spate of injuries hit the Blaugrana in the first three months of the season, it brought about complaints from the players and mistrust from Flick. As such, Tous has been moved to a different role in the club, where he will oversee the development of promising youngsters.

Dr. Holger Broich turns down Barcelona offer

At the time it was reported that Flick was keen to bring in Dr. Holger Broich, an experienced fitness coach and sports scientist who he worked with at Bayern Munich, to replace Tous. Yet BILD (via MD) report that Dr. Broich has decided to turn down an approach from the Blaugrana. They say that he instead decided to take a different offer with the Schwarz Group as Head of Diagnostics for performance, fitness and sports science.

Barcelona’s injury issues

The injury bug not only struck a number of key players last season, including Raphinha, Pedri and Lamine Yamal, but in several instances, there were relapses when said players attempted to come back to action. While the Catalan giants managed to outlast Real Madrid in the title race, it was clear that it had a major impact on their play, and on their Champions League chances, going into their quarter-final with Atletico Madrid without Raphinha, Alejandro Balde and Frenkie de Jong.