Manchester City Women’s Football Club, more affectionately known as “Manchester City Women” are working hard in the Women’s Super League this season after a period of resurgence that saw them come a very close second to Chelsea last year. Helping to spearhead that surge in soccer progress after the team suffered setbacks and injuries in previous years is Emma Deakin, the head of Performance Services at MCWFC.
For Deakin, who comes to soccer with a wealth of experience gained by training Olympic gold winning athletes such as triathlon’s Brownlee brothers, building a winning team is about forging strong relationships. The Manchester City Women’s performance coach must also navigate personal player circumstances as she carefully considers factors such as training load, injury prevention, and recovery.
M&F sat down to find out more from Deakin, who has been an important contributor to some of City’s most recent soccer PRs.
You have worked extensively with Olympic athletes in the past, were you able to travel to any of the Games?
I’ve been lucky enough to go to four Olympic Games and have special memories from each one. Beijing 2008 was my first Games and my first time in that major multi-sporting environment. As a massive sports fan there’s something really unique about everyone being in the same place at the same time with the same goal, and very surreal sat having dinner with Usain Bolt on one side of you and the Williams sisters on the other!
You originally joined Manchester Women’s Football Club in January 2023 as their new Injury Management lead. What are some of the most common injuries in soccer?
Muscle injuries are obviously common in any running-based sport and in women’s football, quad and hamstring injuries are more common. Our aim is to condition our players as well as possible to cope with the growing demands of the game and reduce the risk and severity of these types of injuries.
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are commonly discussed in the media but aren’t isolated to women’s football. I’d say that most injuries we see are sports-specific, rather than gender specific. For example, ankle inversions or issues related to tackles and concussions. For me, especially coming from a physiotherapy background, it’s vital that we take a multi-discipline approach to all our injuries, with clear exit criteria and ‘return to play’ guidelines. At City we involve the football coaches in the recovery journey as early as possible – we want to minimize risk and optimize player performance on return.
What are some of the best ways for a soccer player to rest and recover?
We spend a lot of time monitoring and reviewing wellness data and trends – both across the squad and in individual players. Recovery is specific to each player, and we develop bespoke plans which incorporate a range of modalities including cryotherapy, massage or nutrition. Properly incorporating rest and recovery based on wellness data is a key strategy for preventing injury and something we really focus on.
How would you describe your current role as the Head of Performance Services?
My role as Director of Performance Services for MCWFC is to align and drive all the performance service departments to deliver our performance strategy. Across our multi-disciplinary team, we deliver a range of services – from strength and conditioning, to nutrition, rehab and recovery. One area of the role that’s relatively new to me is player recruitment, which includes assessing the physical condition of incoming players and how they’ll adapt to our training style and load.
You mentioned training load. How is this designed?
Our overall philosophy is to keep training load high to support performance and protect against injuries. Generally, squad training load is designed around fixtures and the team schedule so a week with two games looks different to a one game week. But within that there’s a lot of bespoke programming, and individual load will change based on the position they play, what we want them to achieve during a game, their history, any risk factors, injuries or return to play modifications etc.
Do you encourage players to get in the gym on their own time?
Generally, we don’t encourage working out away from the Club because gym programming is built into each individual player’s schedule and based around results from profiling and individual athlete plans. We design programs so that the rest days are to be true days off, and our players are world-class professional athletes who understand their program of activity.
What types of exercise sessions would you recommend to a soccer player?
Every player is different, but football is a running-based sport with lots of high intensity actions and maximum acceleration and deceleration, so any gym program needs to support an athlete’s ability to perform these actions again and again. Ultimately there’s no escaping the basics of strength training and in particular lower limb strength-based training is key.
Our players come from a wide variety of countries and cultures and ultimately, they are individuals with their own training histories and experiences. If they have an interest in different training methods, whether that’s yoga, swimming or boxing, we’ll always try to look at how to incorporate that in a way that works with their player program and doesn’t detract from their ability to perform at training or in a game.
How much of a role does nutrition play in performance services and are players provided with plans or meals, or education around the subject?
Nutrition is huge for both performance and recovery. We have a full-time nutritionist that works on an individual, squad and educational basis. The nutritionist ensures players have access to the right food at the right time and that regularly means working closely with our chefs at Manchester City Football Academy, and hotels and catering when we’re on the road. They work with individual players to develop nutrition plans to support their goals, for example if they’re recovering from an injury or if they are looking to put on extra lean muscle.
The nutritionist delivers education to players based on the most up-to-date research and literature, so our players understand why they’re eating certain foods at certain times, so that they can make empowered decisions that help them be the best athlete.
What does the training schedule of a professional female soccer player at Manchester City look like?
A typical day starts with a wellness check-in during the morning. We’ll talk about how they’re feeling, how they slept and ultimately if they’re good to train. Then they have breakfast as a team on-site. After breakfast they go to analysis where the team runs through what the training objectives are for the day, and they might review a specific game or some individual player clips.
Then we move onto preparation for on-field training by working the gym with programs tailored to an individual player based on their data, any injuries and the performance required of them at training. After training on the pitch as a team, they’ll come back in and we’ll do a shorter additional one-on-one or smaller group-based training session, depending on what a player needs that day or anything specific they’re working on. The squad then all have lunch together before an afternoon gym session. Then it might be on to commercial or media obligations, or educational activity before finishing for the day.
I understand that there’s a great relationship between the staff in both the men’s and women’s teams!
There’s a great relationship and learning environment across Manchester City Football Academy and that’s important for the development of football generally, not just the women’s game. We recruit the best individuals in their fields and to have that level of knowledge and experience under one roof is incredible.
The MCWFC performance team has seen real benefits from recruiting staff from both inside and outside of football. Together, we’ve got broad experience and expertise, and it’s allowed us to merge and take best practice from across world sport.
The past couple of years have been a period of resurgence for the team. How much has fitness and conditioning played a role in these results?
The demands of the women’s game are changing all the time and our approach to fitness and conditioning reflects that. For us, it’s not just about ensuring our players can perform at their best right now but also that we prepare them for the future demands of the game too. We want them to have long, healthy, high-performance careers. So, strength and conditioning, rehab, recovery and nutrition all play a vital role.
In your time at Manchester City, how have the female athletes evolved in terms of their physical skills and acumen for fitness?
The demands of the game are changing—both in terms of the physical intensity and frequency of games. We’re not just focused on ensuring players have the right level of fitness now, but we want to keep pushing on and raising the level too. Over the last few years, our benchmarks have been getting higher and higher, and our athletes have risen to meet them.
What have been some of your personal highlights since joining Manchester City Women?
Off the pitch; the development of the performance team. As individuals and as a department we’ve really progressed and grown. We’ve created a safe environment in which we can challenge each other and are encouraged to be curious about best practice and that’s really enabled us to develop the best possible programmes for our athletes. On the pitch; qualifying for the Champions League was definitely a personal highlight – it was a just reward after a season of world-class performances and hard work!
