ONE of the many steps Rangers have made in an effort to modernise their footballing department in recent years arrived in the form of a partnership with Zone7 last year.
The group defines itself as: “A data-driven Artificial Intelligence system that enables high levels of athlete performance and availability.”
Essentially they provide risk estimations of when a player is vulnerable to injury, ideally offering tangible evidence for when a player is close to reaching breaking point.
In the record-breaking 2020/21 campaign working alongside Rangers, the company claim their technology saw injuries reduced by over 50 percent compared to the previous season.
Zone7 uses AI and machine learning to mitigate the risk of injuries. The company theorises that injuries are the result of numerous factors. They posit that an injury that occurs on the pitch is likely to be the culmination of a series of elements and not just the in-game sequence. As a result, each player’s ‘risk patterns’ need to be mapped out. This is achieved by using a mixture of sports science and data science expertise - adept at identifying patterns because of the ‘multifactorial’ nature of injuries.
The success has been stark. Over 12 different leagues, the company has been able to reduce 70 percent of injuries.
The model Zone7 have developed means trends unrecognisable to the naked eye can be identified. This is possible because of the gargantuan volumes of data collected on injury history, player load and more.
Rangers’ former head of performance Jordan Milsom explained: “All of our GPS and heart rate training load data from sessions and games is uploaded automatically into the Zone7 system. The platform digests this, performs its modelling and provides us with risk alerts each day for players.
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"I believe AI, coupled with the experience levels of those using it, will eventually become a bedrock within clubs' decision-making as data and technology advances.”
The Rangers Review have attained access to the group’s findings and can reveal the evident improvement that followed Zone7’s work at Ibrox.
In season 2020/21, there was a 52 percent reduction in injuries per 1000 hours, a 36 percent reduction in injuries by match as well as a 21 percent reduction in days lost to injury per 1000 hours.
Furthermore, non-contact injuries per match dropped by 36 percent. There was also a 50 percent drop in the injuries sustained per 1000 hours. The 1000 hours barometer includes training exposure, hence its differentiation from purely match-focused data.
The club have been working with Zone7 since the start of last season following a retrospective analysis of 19/20. Game and training data, previous injuries and various external and internal factors were used to protect players from time on the sideline.
Remarkably, of the 21 injuries sustained at the club last season, Zone7 provided risk estimations for 19. The other two injuries were sustained by players who had recently joined the side and therefore had a limited history for the company to study, underlying the importance of background work in the Zone7 model.
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Nine of the 19 injuries sustained were given risk alerts in the week leading up to their injury. Nine of 16 non-contact injuries received risk alerts leading up to the eventual incident.
The research also outlines some of the benefiting factors that likely played a part in the differentiating injury record between the two seasons. A longer pre-season occured in 20/21, 47 days compared to 38 the year before, while there were fewer Europa League qualification matches. Additionally, player load was eased by the five substitution rule.
Match congestion could have also impacted the injury rate per game metric. Prior to April and May, it was commonplace for six or seven matches to take place per month due to cup competitions.
The findings unquestionably demonstrate the benefit not only of data in football, but the benefit of developing a sporting department that is always looking forward, open to new ideas that could prove beneficial.
In a season that mattered so much, player availability dramatically increased. Naturally, it's difficult to speculate just how impactful that was on an individual basis. But the remarkable consistency shown by the squad was undoubtedly aided by a reduction in preventable injuries.
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