Behind every successful football team there is always a successful team of physiotherapists, there in the shadows, holding things, and limbs, together; performing miracles. What happens on the pitch is obvious to everyone, but what happens off it, before and after the game, when the ball isn't rolling, may not visible, but it is equally important.

Mobilise and activate

It's 8:30 a.m. on Day Five, and Jordan Siebatcheu is the first on one of the five massage tables. Two hours before today's training session and the mobilisation phase is already beginning. This is particularly important in the training camp, where the load is very high and careful preparation is essential.

After mobilisation, it is time for activation to take its place on the training pitch, and is at least as important as the work before. Here, too, the physios are present and pay particular attention to the correct execution of the exercises. Well prepared, warmed up, stretched and ready, the professionals can only now go into the actual training sessions.

First comes the training. Then comes the treatment

Around 12 o'clock, the physios' nerve-centre switches from the pitch back to the physio room. After loosening up and preparing, the focus is now on problem solving. After training there will be players suffering from stresses and strains, all to be be treated with differing methods and means. The clients change every hour, and at peak times four players are being massaged and treated at the same time.

There is no such thing as a normal working day for the physiotherapists, the demands are too varied, the players' needs too unpredictable. During training camps such as these, they are often treated until late in the evening. Even after that, no one in the physio room can quite call it a day.

"Basically, we are available 24/7 for the guys if they have a problem," says Sven Kuhlbrodt who heads the physio department together with Maximilian Perschk. "However, we are usually on hand for two training sessions a day from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m."  When it comes to maintaining the muscular fitness of the pros, to keeping their engines running as smoothly as possible, the clock doesn't stop.

Quote of the day: "What's white and rolls up the mountain? A homesick avalanche." - A rehab coach on the infamous Bad Joke Friday.

Well, as long as it keeps them going.