Revealed: The app which predicts when footballers are about to get injured and could save Premier League clubs millions

Sales of smart wearables are continuing on an upward curve as more and more consumers opt for all manner of devices to track, monitor and record their activities.

A conservative industry estimate suggests that 26 billion internet-linked units will be sold by 2020, with a retail spend of US$6 trillion. The smart footwear market is expected to be worth US$87 billion of that amount.

Whether at the elite level of sport, grassroots, or somewhere in between, hand any individual, coach, player or team the opportunity to gain even a slight advantage over his/her/their rivals and you’ve an immediate captive audience.

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Heart rate, steps taken, miles ran/cycled, calories burned… the recording of each is now a daily routine for millions, however, despite significant research and investment, no one has managed to invent a wearable device that can assist with injury prevention. Until now.

Step forward SportScientia, a top 50 global sports innovation company.

What’s more, renowned and experienced scientists have officially validated SportScientia’s claims, and Liverpool John Moore’s University have been working with the company to capture data, meeting the naysayers and non-believers head on.

It’s also why the company, with an influential advisory panel made up of industry renowned experts behind them, are now ready to roll-out the technology to the general public and the sporting sector.

“Because our data is generated in real time, an analyst at a professional football club, for example, can advise the coach to pull a player out of a training session if they can see that a muscle injury may well be about to occur, because of what his insole generated data is saying,” said Lazou.

“That player can then receive treatment, and his injury can be managed from that point on.

“Think about how many millions of pounds could be saved by Premier League clubs if their £100,000 a week striker is fit and available instead of being out injured for a couple of months with a ruptured calf muscle that our technology could have detected

It isn’t just at the top end where Sport Scientia want to make their mark either. This potential game-changer is being designed to help everyone who enjoys sport of some description.

For every elite level team to use the technology, there’ll be a grassroots player who’ll benefit too, as the quantifying data will ensure coaches make better-informed decisions.

Thus, consistent injury-free performances could help a player get spotted and, furthermore, it can serve as part of the player’s CV.

Key features of the product include weight distribution monitoring as well as movement and gait analysis. The accompanying app ensures that the data is available in real time.

Once activated, an individual’s ‘constant baseline level’ is determined and is recorded. Should that change, flagging up potential cause for concern, certain scenarios are predicted and then acted upon accordingly, preventing the onset of the injury.

A former employee of FC Barcelona, SportScientia’s Technical Director, Andreas Vou, has no doubts whatsoever that the landscape will change immeasurably once the insole is launched worldwide, in the first quarter of 2018.

“Some people can’t understand why I would give up working for Barcelona to get involved with a start-up technology company, but I immediately recognised SportScientia’s enormous potential,” Vou noted.

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“In the wearable technology business, this is the holy grail. Mentioning no names, but there are examples of wearable technologies that are completely generic rather than specific to the individual like ours.

“With our product, there’s no confusion, no ambiguity – the person wearing that insole is you and you alone, and the data generated cannot be anyone’s but yours.

“Our technology won’t just be restricted to football – we see this being used across the sporting world, especially running, golf and cycling, as well as in the medical profession.

“We want to revolutionise smart wearable technology using intuitive AI – inclusive of eSports and gamification which is showing enormous growth – while also introducing artificial intelligence and mixed reality in how we deliver and present our data. We believe that we’ve developed a real game-changer.