CELTIC'S Head of Sports Science, Jack Nayler, revealed how he and the coaching staff are working to ensure the players maintain their high levels of fitness during the current lockdown.

“The situation changed quite quickly so we had to move fast to get ourselves sorted,” Jack Nayler told the Celtic View podcast. “John Currie is the head of fitness and conditioning and he pulled together all the programmes for the guys and tailored them brilliantly to each individual player.

“He’s put in a lot of work over the last couple of weeks to pull that together and has done an incredible job. From my side, I’ve set up monitoring to record what they’re doing and we’ve also provided the guys with nutrition packs so they’ve all got some protein powder and stuff to help boost immunity.

“Rob Norton, our nutritionist, has been in touch with all of the players to help them with their food plans. For some of the guys who aren’t good at cooking, we’ve set them up with meal prep companies who can deliver pre-prepared healthy meals to their home.”

With everything in place, the players have been working hard in training and keeping the staff abreast of their progress. Jack Nayler said the coaching staff have even found ways to tap into the players’ competitive edge in order to maximise their training.

“All the guys have heart-rate belts and they wear them for any training they do indoors or outdoors,” he said. “We’re able to track all the distances they cover as well so we have a lot of data to look at from the players.

“They’re doing it in their own time when it suits them. I’m getting constant WhatsApp messages from them telling me what they’re doing throughout the day, so in some ways I’m a little bit busier than usual because I’m getting messages throughout the day and into the evening as opposed to just at the training ground.

“We’re trying to keep everyone motivated and interested is really important. We have things like a weekly 5k race which all the players record individually and post their data. These guys are competitive, particularly with each other, so any way we can build on that, get a bit of banter between them and have them push each other then we’ll look to exploit those opportunities when we can.”

Listen to the full interview with Celtic's Head of Sports Science, Jack Nayler, on the Celtic View podcast.

Celtic's Head of Sport Science discusses training in lockdown