Josean Lekue: “It’s been an intense summer of recovery”

Athletic Club’s head of medical services Josean Lekue admitted that his department had a lot of work to do over the summer in terms of getting the players ready for pre-season.

After the holiday period, the players have gone through the appropriate medical tests this week and are already training under Marcelino, with the exception of several players who have started pre-season with specific programmes.

“The number of injuries we have had to work with over the summer has been a little higher than usual,” Lekue explained in his traditional pre-season press conference.

“This was to be expected, as we have five recent surgeries and they need rehabilitation. As for the rest of the squad, they have been able to get back into the swing of things as normal.”

Lekue also confirmed that Iñaki Williams, one of the players who had been struggling at the start of the pre-season, has been given the all-clear and is now available for Marcelino.

As for the rest of the players, Lekue reported that they are all recovering according to plan, with the exception of Peru Nolaskoain, where he explained: “We can’t talk about dates yet, it’s been a complicated process with his ankle.”

In the particular case of Yuri Berchiche, Lekue mentioned that the left-back is carrying a groin injury from which “he has not recovered 100%, although he is much better than he was at the end of the season”.

He continued: “It’s an injury we know very well in the world of football, it has many ups and downs. So far, we haven’t found any surgical indicators in Yuri, but we’ll do a new scan to readapt his treatment.”