Heart screening amongst the tests Dons players undergo ahead of pre-season return

MK Dons players were in for medical tests this week ahead of their pre-season training next Monday.

Players undergo several checks from the medical and sports science team to ensure their health and wellbeing is safe to do so.

Amongst the checks are concussion assessments and heart screenings - something which players are given every two years at Stadium MK.

Heart issues in football were thrown back under the spotlight recently, when Inter Milan's Danish international Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch in their match against Finland at Euro 2020.

Head of Rehabilitation Adam Ross said: "Heart screening is something we’ve always taken very seriously at this club. The information we gain gives us a really good picture and hopefully tells us that they are in a good and healthy state to play professional football.

“Another part of the assessment is to take some concussion baseline assessments. It’s a number of tests and it gives us a score that, should they go into the concussion protocol, we know where they need to return to in order to return to play safely."

He added: "It’s their first day back and it was great to see everybody - they are all looking really well.

"We've run them through a battery of screens and tests to see where they are at. It gives us some valuable information which we can use for their training prescriptions and going forward, should they get injured, we have some baseline scores that we can compare against during their rehabilitation.

“We do musculoskeletal screening which tests the players' range of movement in different joints and their strength. They’ve also done some anthropometrics which is measurements of the body - weights, heights and body fats.