Burnley boss backs Cisak to develop and improve

Cisak sued surgeon Bhaskar Bhowal over an old wrist injury, although the 24-year-old, signed on a free transfer from Oldham in the summer, conceded his case, after telling the High Court: “If I get pain in my wrist, I start leaving balls, which obviously isn’t very good for a goalkeeper.

“I’m taking painkillers. I’m training at 75% of what I should be at.

“It has affected me.”

But Dyche has no concerns: “We look to back him in the best way we can through our sports science, through our physiotherapy. We believe in all that, strengthening and conditioning.

“We knew about it.

“We know there’s something that needs work and we look to improve that.

“The reality is we’ve watched him, we’ve seen what he can do, we’ve seen him play for our own first team.

“It’s hard for players to be 100 per cent all the time, any player, whether it’s knee injuries or whatever.

“Ledley King is the best example – an absolutely top class player who’s had to manage his body wisely.

“Alex is someone we feel we can manage that situation, we can help him push the margins, the ongoing improvements that we all know with medicine and sports science backed up with strengthening and conditioning.

“We’re still looking to push his margins as high as they can go.

“You’ve got to be honest, some of the things (that came out) like 75 per cent in training – I tell you what he’s decent for 75 per cent training, so if we can push that to 85 and push it 90 through the support we’ve got then that bodes well.”

Burnley did tier due diligence before signing him, and he passed a medical, and Dyche added: “It was just a case of managing him wisely.

“We’d seen him play a number of games obviously and we felt that it can be managed.

“The best example I can think of in my lifetime is when people had cruciates they went to Lilleshall they had two massive scars probably a foot long down their knee, a complete reconstruction, 18 months (out). Now they’re probably five to six months out with three little dots on their knee. So we’re aware of certain conditions that we think can be helped, we think through good habits here, and we can keep enhancing and keep progressing and developing.

“He was brought as a development style player and that’s exactly what he is.”

And Dyche admits many footballers work with and through some injury issue or other: “It’s very difficult for any footballer you work with. We have other players here who you have to be careful with.

“Some people don’t like training on AstroTurf for example because of one reason or another.

“There are so many tailored programmes for each person and we make sure we use our departments behind the scenes, science mainly, obviously physiotherapy, dietary requirements. It’s well documented that I believe in it, I believe it can improve players as individuals and I believe it can improve groups of players, and that’s what we look to. He’s just another part of that.”

Follow @BXSport on twitter!