Laurent Koscielny is using yoga to aid his recovery from injury, according to his recent post on Instagram.
Koscielny is slowly edging closer to his return to the Arsenal starting lineup, after six months on the sidelines recovering from his Achilles surgery. The defender is back in training with the first-team, but not quite ready for matches just yet.
In a bid to help his rehabilitation along, Koscielny has taken up yoga, as he revealed in an Instagram post this week:
The French footballer has been working with Sharon Heidaripour of Football Yoga Ltd.
Heidaripour used to be the Arsenal Academy Sports Therapist before she left the club in 2016 to focus on yoga. She still clearly has close ties with Arsenal though, working not just with Koscielny but also with youth left-back Tolaji Bola, and former Gunner Robert Pires:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoQuL6qgxHc/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpgwPquAxlN/
It’s great to see players embracing different methods of training and recovery to try and get the best out of themselves. As for Koscielny’s return specifically, Unai Emery says it’s not too far away.
“He feels better in each training,” the Arsenal head coach told his press conference. “He is more close to being with us for competitive games. We are happy with him, he is every day with us and we are going to think after the international break how we continue working and playing games.”
The first game after the international break is against Bournemouth on November 25th, and we’re unlikely to see Koscielny thrown straight back into the action then.
However, if the 33-year-old does get some game time from the bench, or for the academy in their u23 match against Derby County, perhaps he could return to the team against Tottenham or Manchester United in early December. We’ll have to wait and see.