{"id":787253,"date":"2026-07-08T01:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/787253\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T01:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:19:14","slug":"injury-ravaged-toronto-fc-hires-new-director-of-player-health-and-high-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/787253\/","title":{"rendered":"Injury-ravaged Toronto FC hires new director of player health and high performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto FC midfielder Djordje Mihailovic, seen dribbling the ball in February, has been one of the club’s many injured players this season.LM Otero\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Plagued by injuries, Toronto FC has turned to England\u2019s Premier League for help.<\/p>\n

Toronto has brought in Adam Brett, whose resume includes stints with Tottenham and Brighton, as its new director of player health and high performance. <\/p>\n

TFC has been without a sport science head since director of performance Cesar Meylan left on the eve of preseason to rejoin John Herdman with the Indonesia men\u2019s national team. <\/p>\n

The Toronto training room has been full this season, averaging seven players listed as either out or questionable on the league\u2019s weekly injury list.<\/p>\n

The low point came in the last two fixtures before the World Cup break. Ahead of the May 16 game at Charlotte, the injury report listed 12 Toronto players as out and one as questionable.<\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: Messi taps into his seemingly endless supply of brilliance in World Cup win<\/a><\/p>\n

And for the May 23 game at Chicago, Toronto was missing seven players with another five listed as questionable.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly the injury list and the size of it was ridiculous, just impossible,\u201d Toronto GM Jason Hernandez told a virtual media briefing Tuesday. \u201cBut also it was most of our high-impact players, most of our high-investment players \u2013 the guys that are meant to carry and deliver and drive us were the ones dealing with the injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The walking wounded included designated players Djordje Mihailovic and Josh Sargent as well as Jos\u00e9 Cifuentes, Theo Corbeanu, Benjamin Kuscevic, Richie Laryea and Matheus Pereira.<\/p>\n

Hernandez says TFC was \u201ctop three\u201d in the league in terms of injury burden this season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Brett is no stranger to injury crises, having seen a rash of players go down during his short time with Tottenham. Brett and Nick Davies, head of sports, left Spurs in July, 2025, after a year on the job with then-newly hired coach Thomas Frank bringing in his own medical crew.<\/p>\n

Prior to Spurs, Brett spent almost a decade with Brighton and Hove Albion, rising from head physiotherapist to head of medicine and performance.<\/p>\n

He started his career in rugby, working with the Henley Hawks, England\u2019s Rugby Football Union and Gloucester Rugby.<\/p>\n

Brett holds a master of science in sports physiotherapy, bachelor\u2019s degrees in physiotherapy and sports science and a FIFA diploma in football medicine. He is a certified strength and conditioning specialist.<\/p>\n

He has served as a medical education tutor for England\u2019s Football Association for the past nine years.<\/p>\n

Hernandez believes Brett\u2019s varied experience and education will help the team as it prepares for the league\u2019s so-called 2027 Sprint Season, a truncated 14-game regular season that starts in February and ends with the MLS Cup in May.<\/p>\n

The shortened campaign serves as the precursor to MLS\u2019s move to align its schedule with the world\u2019s top leagues. Starting in July, 2027, the MLS regular season will kick off in mid-July and conclude with the playoffs and MLS Cup in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand from a competition standpoint we\u2019re going to be entering uncharted waters and we are going to need leadership that can think outside the box, that can problem-solve and troubleshoot as we enter, I would say, a new landscape, a new frontier,\u201d said Hernandez.<\/p>\n

Asked if he believes the new schedule might help alleviate the injury situation, Hernandez replied: \u201cThe short answer is I don\u2019t think anyone knows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto FC defender Richie Laryea, left, recovered from injury in time to compete at home for Canada in the World Cup.Frank Gunn\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Canadian climate does not help TFC\u2019s bid to keep its players healthy. Injuries are a constant, especially at the start of the season with wintery conditions forcing players to train on artificial turf and then play on natural grass.<\/p>\n

Hernandez, a former TFC player, said the team\u2019s preseason preparations this year were not helped by record rainfall in Spain where the team held its camp.<\/p>\n

The club is looking to make \u201cmassive investments\u201d in improving its training ground, such as adding underground heating to its natural grass fields so it can avoid having to train on artificial turf under the bubble.<\/p>\n

TFC (3-6-5) is currently four points below the playoff line in 13th place in the 15-team Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

Winless in nine games (0-5-4) in all competitions, its next MLS outing is July 16 at CF Montreal. TFC has been idle since May 23 when it lost 2-1 at the Chicago Fire.<\/p>\n

The league then took a break to accommodate the World Cup, with Toronto\u2019s Laryea and Jonathan Osorio with Canada and Derrick Etienne Jr. representing Haiti.<\/p>\n

TFC has work to do to climb back up the standings. The club squandered a home-heavy portion of the league schedule prior to the World Cup, winning just two of nine straight outings at BMO Field (2-2-5).<\/p>\n

Its next four games are all on the road, with trips to New England, D.C. United and New York City FC following the stop in Montreal.<\/p>\n

The good news is the roster is getting healthy, although Hernandez declined to provide an exact breakdown on who\u2019s back and who\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

Toronto has added defensive midfielder Nelson Palacio, acquiring him from Real Salt Lake in exchange for US$1.1-million and up to an additional US$550,000 conditional on certain performance-based metrics being met.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old is in his final year as a U-22 Initiative roster player, having signed with Salt Lake as such. Under league rules, U-22 Initiative players come with a reduced salary budget charge \u2013 US$150,000 for players 20 and under and US$200,000 for players 21 to 25.<\/p>\n

Palacio\u2019s actual salary last season was US$473,167. <\/p>\n

Palacio, who joined Salt Lake in June, 2023, spent last season on loan with FC Zurich in the Swiss Super League, making 34 combined appearances. Palacio has won one cap for Colombia, in a friendly against South Korea in March, 2023, and represented his country at the youth level.<\/p>\n

During the break, Toronto bought out the contracts of American defender Henry Wingo and South African winger Cassius Mailula. Cifuentes returned to Scotland\u2019s Rangers Football Club at the completion of his loan spell.<\/p>\n

Hernandez said the club is looking for more help in the midfield and backline during the summer transfer window.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Toronto FC midfielder Djordje Mihailovic, seen dribbling the ball in February, has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[264632,49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-787253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-2026worldcupglobe","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}