Why availability tracking matters more than injury prediction

Every year, new tools promise to predict injuries before they happen. The research is exciting. The reality, for most clubs, is that they don't need prediction — they need visibility.

The clubs we work with don't have sports scientists running ML models on GPS data. They have a coach who needs to know if their centre-back can train on Tuesday. That question — "can they train?" — is the foundation of everything else.

Availability tracking isn't glamorous. It's a status field: available, modified, follow-up, or out. But when you track it consistently, day after day, patterns emerge. You see that a player has been "modified" for three weeks. You see that Tuesday sessions always have lower availability. You see the same hamstring issue recurring in the same player.

That's not injury prediction. It's injury visibility. And it's achievable for any club, at any level, with a simple system and 30 seconds per player per day.

The clubs that get this right aren't the ones with the most technology. They're the ones with the most consistency.