Prevention top of the agenda for Shrewsbury Town's Chris Skitt

Skitt rejoined Salop at the beginning of last season, and since Paul Hurst’s return as head coach the duo are working together in Shropshire for the first time since 2018.

And Skitt, who heads the club’s medical department, likes to try and stop injuries from happening in the first place.

“My mantra from very young has always been an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure,” he said. “That has massive implications on the coaching staff.

“So if we can identify problems before they happen and then resolve issues before they happen, it gives a nice dilemma for the coaching staff to have a full selection to be able to pick from and avoid any lengthy issues or injuries meaning they lose players. There is a financial benefit that comes with it so anything we can possibly do to prevent the injury in the first instance is what we apply our trade to.

“Going on one step further, if they do get injured, it is about making sure they are back in the swiftest and safest time possible.”

Skitt is part-time at Shrewsbury. He works on matchdays and is at the training ground on a Tuesday and Friday, while also running his own private practice, Motum in Shrewsbury. The club have other staff that cover to make sure the players have all the support they need.

And Skitt has explained how he balances the two.

He said: “Every hour of the day I have access to the performance metrics of the players which even remotely allows me to keep quite a good grasp on where they are at, and where issues might arise.

“That is on a collective and individual basis.

“So I big thing for me is how each individual varies their training load throughout the week to make sure we are getting the best out of them.

“I believe it to be dangerous to use the group average as a comparison as there is so much variation – I lean heavily on the metrics and the data we take. While I am only in two to three days each week the reality is there is probably another 25 hours a week I put in at night looking over the GPS and wellness reports.”