An unsung hero behind the end of Real Madrid's injury nightmare

Portugal's Jose Mourinho, the Real Madrid manager, has revealed a striking development in the injury situation within the Royal club, after the club managed to reduce the number of injuries significantly, thanks to an integrated physical conditioning system led by Antonio Diaz, the man responsible for fitness preparation.

According to the Spanish newspaper "AS", Diaz, a specialist in eccentric strength training, has become one of the leading figures behind the dramatic upturn in the physical condition of Real Madrid's players. The team had racked up 123 injuries and other physical problems across the previous two seasons.

Mourinho flagged the change at the press conference after Real Madrid's win over Villarreal on 9 October, the first match in a run of eight consecutive victories.

The Portuguese coach said: "Do you want a story? I'll tell you one. This is the first time in the last ten years that Real Madrid has reached the middle of October without a single injured player."

He added: "The players currently injured have injuries dating back to last season, namely Militao, Rodrygo and Asensio, who underwent surgery during the current season because of an injury dating back to last January, and Mendy. It's a good story, isn't it?"

Things have improved even further since. Militao is back on the pitch and Mendy has medical clearance, though he has yet to make a matchday squad. That leaves only Rodrygo and Asensio sidelined.

Such numbers mark a tangible improvement in an injury file that had become a major source of concern inside the club, after the glut of injuries and physical problems that struck the team over the previous two campaigns.

Mourinho is careful not to pour scorn on the work of previous coaches, but he defends the current system: "I know the numbers of the past, but I don't know the details of the work that was being done. Here we work according to a comprehensive, natural and professional plan, built on very good cooperation between everyone."

He went on: "There are the players, and the technical department, which includes specialists in sports science who have the ability to prevent injuries, boost strength, and set individual training programmes when simple indicators appear that can be detected before they turn into problems, alongside the medical department, which is heavily involved in this system and carries out a lot of invisible work."

One name stands out above all others behind this transformation: Antonio Diaz. His professional story is a remarkable one. He began his career in a role resembling that of a translator, exactly as Mourinho did at Barcelona when he worked under Bobby Robson.

Born in 1982, Diaz started out as a translator for Luigi Del Neri, who succeeded Mourinho as Porto coach. His knowledge of Italian, picked up during a student exchange programme in Italy, opened the door.

Diaz worked with Nuno Espirito Santo during the final stretch of his playing career at Porto, and when Nuno turned to coaching, he brought him onto his staff.

Together they worked at Rio Ave, Valencia, Porto, Wolverhampton, Tottenham, Al-Ittihad and Nottingham Forest. Then came a call from Mourinho in 2025, bringing Diaz to Turkey with Fenerbahce, and later to Benfica.

During negotiations with Real Madrid, the club hinted that it already had Antonio Pintus leading physical preparation. Mourinho insisted on bringing in Diaz, stressing that he was the man he wanted to rely on.

Unlike Xabi Alonso, Mourinho did not shut the door on keeping Pintus in the fold. He knows the Italian fitness coach is held in high regard inside Real Madrid, and he values his experience and expertise in the field.

Diaz and Pintus split the physical work between them, but the final word rests with the former, as Mourinho sees it. The results back the decision.

Real Madrid have scored 16 of their 44 goals this season after the 75th minute, a rate of 36.4%. It speaks to a team that finishes matches with huge physical strength.

That edge has delivered important wins and comebacks, as it did against Roma, AEK and Barcelona.

It is one pillar of Real Madrid's physical preparation system. The other lies in the team's recent success in keeping most of its players fit and available.

Since pre-season began, Real Madrid's players have suffered only ten injuries, and the number has steadily fallen as the campaign has progressed. October brought just two, one of them Thibaut Courtois's bout of a flu-like illness.

Much of this improvement traces back to Diaz's speciality, a field in which he is regarded as one of the world's foremost experts: eccentric strength training.

Paulino Granero, the Spanish physical load preparation coach who has worked with CSKA Moscow and the Russian national team and now works at Qatari club Al-Shamal, explained to "AS" how this type of training is applied.

Granero said: "Strength can be trained in three ways. The first is concentric, when the muscle shortens, the second is static, when the muscle does not move, and the third is eccentric, when the muscle stretches and increases in length."

He added: "From a physiological standpoint, the latest research supports that the best method of neuromuscular training for the purpose of injury prevention lies in working the muscles through eccentric strength training."

A personal friend of Diaz as well as a colleague in the same field, Granero gave a practical example drawn from what he saw after the Roma match.

He said: "After the Roma match, I noticed that the substitute players stayed on the pitch to continue training, and they were performing an exercise called the Nordic hamstring curl, where the player kneels while another person holds his feet, then the player moves his torso forward and returns to his previous position."

He explained: "This is an eccentric strength exercise targeting the hamstring muscles, and it is just one example from a set of other training exercises, which include the quadriceps and the adductor muscles of the thigh."

He concluded: "It is a training method that achieves great benefits at the muscular level, and it is clear that Real Madrid works on this aspect extremely well."

Diaz ranks among the most prominent specialists in eccentric strength training, and his philosophy, built on a strong scientific foundation, has clearly begun to bear fruit at Real Madrid.

An analysis published by the American Journal of Sports Medicine, drawing on 108 different studies, found that eccentric training programmes cut hamstring injury rates by between 56.8% and 70%.

Another study published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that the Nordic hamstring curl reduces injuries in these muscles by up to 51%.