Ben Chrisene has pointed to a growing level of detail and support at Norwich City as key to both his recovery and the squad’s improved physical condition.
The left-back has been among those to struggle with different issues over the past year, but is now back to full fitness and hoping to play a key role in their Championship mission under Philippe Clement.
Injuries caused havoc last season, leading to plenty of external scrutiny and frustration, with Norwich recording a high number of soft-tissue problems during the 2025/26 campaign.
Chrisene, who recently played through the pain barrier with a shoulder issue, credits those behind the scenes in the club’s medical and performance departments for pushing him through and whipping him into the necessary shape to hit the ground running.
"I've had a few injuries now where we've gone harder, we've gone easier in the rehab, and we're just trying to work out what's best," he said.
"It's not just for me, it's for every player as well and there's so much insight now into our team and our squad around injuries and preventing them as well. It's such a positive at the moment in pre-season as well where you see fitness levels of lads which you've never had before and for me as well, we've done that.
"The rehab I've just had has been a brutal one, like I said, but a good one for me and now I'm at a level where I feel like I can play and I want to play as well, so that's just the main thing."
Norwich have revamped their approach to fitness, recovery and rehabilitation by hiring new performance director Dr Paul Ford, alongside a series of other changes across those departments
The hope is that improved availability can help propel Norwich into the promotion picture next season, but Chrisene was keen to push back on external criticism of those in charge of fitness, sports science and medical roles since last season.
"They've been unbelievable. I think it's a bit unjust on all the staff because we've got so much staff now and they are unbelievable," Chrisene said.
"The stuff they do and how hard they have to work, especially last season when we had the number of injuries we had was amazing.
"It was one of those things where people are quick to judge on what's going on and stuff like that, but they've worked extremely hard, especially now we've brought in a few more people, which a lot of fans know about, and it's been mega.
"They're doing their best to prevent these injuries and progress us to a team which we want to be the fittest in the league, and we want to be the best in the league, so that's what we have to do."
