ABSTRACT
In modern day soccer, as in many sports, the capacity to recover from intense training, competition and matches is often considered an important determinant of subsequent performance. Incomplete recovery may be a regular occurrence in soccer where players are required to compete repeatedly within a short time frame. Given that insufficient recovery may have implications with regards to fatigue, overreaching and injury (Naessens et al., 2000; Junge and Dvorak, 2004), enormous time and resources are invested into recovery practices, including diet (Burke and Loucks, 2006), hydration (Maughan et al., 2005), cold water immersion (Rubley et al., 2003), compression garments (Kraemer and Bush, 1998) and cool downs (Reilly and Rigby, 2002).
