Anthony Gordon Newcastle United 'injury' claim after training ground insight

Anthony Gordon has taken charge of his own training programme at Newcastle United.

The 23-year-old has been in fine form for Newcastle this season with 11 goals and 10 assists in all competitions, earning his first senior England caps in the process. But one of Gordon’s key strengths for The Magpies has been his availability this season.

Despite a number of injury scares, most notably during the 3-2 defeat at Chelsea, the winger has missed just two matches this campaign - both due to suspension.

Gordon has started 31 out of a possible 32 Premier League matches for Newcastle this season. The one match he didn’t start saw him come off the bench and grab a goal and assist in an 8-0 win at Sheffield United back in September.

And Gordon believes his availability is down to the fact he has a personal training programme in which he avoids weight training with his team-mates or any treatment from the club physios.

“I go for lunch [when the team do weight training], I think the club are very understanding with how I am because I don’t go in the gym, and I don’t go in the treatment [room],” he said via The Overlap.

“I just do what I need to do, I do a lot of stretching and a lot of yoga, actual weights, and treatment - not for me. I don’t have massages, the only thing I do is stretch.

“I stretch before training and after training, that’s it. I do a lot of recovery, my gym stuff is more recovery-based, I do a lot of watt bike, love an ice bath, pool, and stretch. It’s more flexibility and just getting my legs in a good place rather than trying to add to it.”

“A lot of the time, when the [training] session finishes and a lot of the lads will go in the gym, I stay out all the time finishing and doing extra bits because I feel like training has ended too quickly and I’m not ready to go in, that’s another part of it.

“Like I said, the gaffer and gym staff are fine with me doing it. They know I don’t like it and that I like to do what makes me feel good and this season I’ve been injury free, so it’s worked.”

In contrast to Gordon’s availability, Newcastle have been hit with numerous injury issues this campaign with the list of unavailable players regularly into the double figures.

And Gordon believes weight training is tied to increased injury rates.

“If I do any training, I don’t do weight training at all, ever,” he added. “The lads at the club do to it, but my game isn’t really reliant on it, and I just think we do enough running so to add actual weight onto your muscles and body will just put you under more stress and have more chance of injury.

“It would make me stronger, and I’d probably actually get quicker, more explosive, but I might get more injuries so it’s not worth that end result for me.”