“I’ve never worked so hard. I wasn’t used to such heavy workloads.”
It was the month of August when in an interview Luigi Silvestri uttered these words referring to the preparation he was carrying out, his first in black and white given that the previous season he had arrived in January from Siena. However, when they say that work pays.
That evidently so robust preparation served to ensure that Cavalluccio arrived at the end of the season with a lot of beer in its legs and, above all, without ever having had any physical declines throughout the championship and without ever having been athletically overwhelmed by its opponents.
A work menu measured out by the athletic trainer Andrea Nocera who, when he drew up the program, certainly took into account not only the human material available, but also the fact that Cesena had direct promotion as its objective and continuity of performance was for this reason essential condition.
The downside can be a start with the handbrake on due to muscles packed by too much work and the more the player has an important structure the more this problem can be accentuated.
The defeat in Olbia on the first day can also be read in this light, it is no coincidence that Giuseppe Prestia was among the Bianconeri most in difficulty, someone who, throughout the championship, never gave way to anyone.
If the preparation is effective you can also see it from the point of view of injuries. And here too Cesena experienced an almost record year. In fact, very few muscular problems have deprived Domenico Toscano of important players. Apart from the long absence, 4 months, of Andrea Ciofi due to abdominal surgery, the most significant injuries were the strains of Corazza and De Rose, both out for four days and that of Saber which also forced him to sit out for 4 started from the grandstand, but in between there was a perhaps too hasty return to Carrara. Then again Ogunseye and Varone out for three games due to various strains and Piacentini who instead suffered thigh problems after the debut in Olbia and was out for the entire month of September. For the former Modena player then another stop in this last part of the championship with the games now over.
Even for the young Pieraccini and Shpendi there were some problems during the season, but all things were negligible. Applause must therefore be given to those who defined the training strategy to which we must dutifully add the staff of masseurs and physiotherapists who contributed to keeping the muscles toned and efficient.
