Oriam sport scientists Andy Lombard and Katrina Gibbon have this week been on international duty with Scotland women’s squads, Under 17s and under 19s respectively.

Katrina is currently over in Belfast with the 19s for two friendly matches versus Northern Ireland. Tuesday the squad won 2-0 and yesterday picked up a second victory winning 1-0.

Its the start of a new campaign for Katrina and squad as they prepare for the under 19 UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying round in October.

Katrina’s role is mainly education based, not only to help the players while they are on camp but also to educate them and help away from national camps in their day to day lifestyle and training routines.

Her responsibilities include collecting GPS data at all training sessions and matches, daily well being data and rating of perceived exertion (RPE’s). Katrina also delivers workshops and management of all things nutrition and hydration.

Andrew Lombard hasn’t had to venture far, the under 17 squad have been based with us at Oriam, defeating Slovenia 3-1 on the indoor synthetic on Wednesday and will play them again Saturday on the indoor synthetic, 10am kick off.

Andrew’s role is quite similar to Katrina’s, mainly focusing on educating the younger players about the habits of the performance lifestyle of a pro player.

He has helped the players learn about the correct nutrition preparation as well as recovery strategies on and off the pitch. This is Andrew’s first camp with the SFA and he has found it to be a learning experience for himself whilst being integrated with the squad for the full week.