As part of Selangor FC's efforts to modernise our operations, we recently appointed Dr. Muhammad Hazwan Bin Khair to the post of Head of Sports Science. The 35-year old began assuming this role earlier this month, having previously completed his Bachelor's Degree from the International Medical University, and then his graduate studies in Sports Medicine at the University of Malaya.

While he has served with Malaysia's Ministry of Health, Hazwan has had extensive experience in sports. On top of his time as a student-athlete during his school and university days, he has worked in Malaysian rugby in various capacities including the 15's national team doctor, and he is a medical educator who is certified by the rugby union world governing and law making body, World Rugby.

But now he has taken the next step in his career, in professional sport, by joining Selangor FC, and his first task is to identify the cause of one of the first team's biggest problems this season; the injuries faced by numerous players.

"That's what the club is looking to discover in hiring me: to find out why the injuries have been happening and how the players' recovery process can be better undertaken. While sometimes injuries are blamed on bad luck or the condition of the playing pitch, there are other factors that can contribute to a player getting injured, such as their injury history and training status.

"We now want to find out more intrinsically why an injury happens; by looking at the above factors and other aspects such as the player's mental approach to every game. I want to look at these factors together and then to diagnose, manage and improve on these injuries so that we can reduce the risk of injuries in the future. That's the department's target for next year," noted the medical practitioner.

And for this to be achieved, Hazwan is hoping to obtain the cooperation of every department at the club, including the players'.

"What we're trying to achieve cannot be done by the sports science department alone," he admitted frankly. "I will be working with the coaches, even the analysts, to help them understand what we're trying to implement so that the approach is more holistic.

"We're now trying to get the coaching staff input as well because we want to plan things out better in terms of the players' return from injuries and initial fitness. From now on it's more of a team effort and we must not work in silos anymore.

"The players need to be well-prepared and feel well-looked after, and they are very worried about getting injured. Their concern is whether they will be managed well and can return to action on time. I want to reduce this anxiety so that they totally trust our rehabilitation service and in turn, the Sports Science Department."

Another goal that Hazwan has set in his new role is to optimise the operations of his department, ensuring that each unit complements one another in preparing the Selangor FC players.

"The club's sports science department incorporates the strength and conditioning unit, the club psychologist, rehabilitation unit and the nutritionist. We all work towards the same goal; to provide the club players with the best preparations.

"We have one of the best facilities in the country, but it is now the time to not just have the best hardware. We have to tie up all the softwares together too; the CPU, the RAM, the hard drive all need to work together to create the ultimate machine," explained the former MD at the end of the interview.

We wish Dr. Hazwan good luck in his new role at the club.

Demi Kebanggaan.

Prepared by Zulhilmi Zainal