I was looking through the Premier League injury list this week and there was one thing that stood out more than anything else – the term ‘late fitness test’.

It seems there are a lot of injured players at the moment, who will go through some tests to decide if they’re fit enough to play on the day of the game.

In my experience of working in professional football late fitness tests would only happen if we were playing at home. In the Premier League it’s different. You might think that if a player is not fit on a Friday there’s no way they could be fit 24 hours later, but it’s not as simple as that.

What often happens is that an injured player – let’s say has a hamstring strain - will be tested on the Friday. What a late fitness test on a Saturday does is see how they have reacted from the day before.

They’re not really looking to see if the player is fit, they’re looking to see if they showed any signs of pain or stiffness from what they did the day before as they’ll often try and stretch the muscle as far as possible to see if it will break again or not.

Late fitness tests usually consist of the player being put through the same as the rest of the team and the physio will be looking for any signs of muscles ‘cramping’, ‘twinging’, ‘biting’ when the player is at full sprint.

This indicates whether something the player is ready to take part, yet most people assume they’re fit based on a lack of pain, but that theory should be met with extreme caution.

Most people – Sunday morning footballers are the worst at this – make the assumption that if an injury is not causing them pain, it’s not a problem, but the reality of most sports injuries is that the pain goes after seven days.

When you’re at work a hamstring isn’t going to feel stretched like it would be when you play, hence why you think you’re fit to play.

Yet, when that ball is kicked or the sprint is on if the muscle isn’t strong or flexible enough, then chances are it will go again.

The fitness test is something I recommend you do, too. Do it today if you’re a doubt for tomorrow, then see how it feels when you wake up. Test it again and only then decide if you’re good to go.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking there’s no pain, so it must be okay.

With calf, Achilles and hamstring injuries especially – chances are it isn’t. For more top tips to recover from injuries visit www.paulgoughphysio.com/sports-injury-clinic.