Ryan Thomas (PEC Zwolle | Netherlands)

Any updates on how his recovery is going?

From this week's Flying Kiwis.

"ED.nl: “It is now expected that Thomas will at least partially train with the group at the start of the preparation period (end of June). He is now working on an individual basis and has been doing so on the field for quite some time. This gives PSV an extra option for midfield, for which sufficient choices can already be made on paper. Thomas has to deal with this season's Michal Sadílek and Pablo Rosario. In addition, PSV also has Érick Gutiérrez in the selection and for the most offensive position (number 10), sufficient alternatives are now also available.”

Not much to that clip, just confirming that Thommo is on track to be ready for next season and should have at least a partial role from the beginning of preseason. PSV are currently equal on points with Ajax with two games to play but are behind on goal difference. Both of those teams are likely to be in for a bit of foreign raiding in the transfer market so hard to say what kind of squad Thomas will be returning to but however it goes it’ll be a relief to see him back after so long out. Been a weird season of Flying Kiwis with zero Winston Reid or Ryan Thomas involved.

Up Next: Still on the rehab bus

"

PSV must be having a great season to be up there with Ajax in the league. Not going to be easy to break into the starting 11, but I assume he'll get a go.

They have just as many good young Dutch players as Ajax does really - Dumfries, Rosario, Ramselaar, Bergwijn, etc (though admittedly none are yet on the level of de Ligt/de Jong/van de Beek) 

This week's Flying Kiwis

"So… that first season with PSV didn’t quite go as planned. Ryan Thomas got the big move to the big club but then busted his knee almost straight away and missed the entire campaign, as PSV watched rivals Ajax win a league and cup double while making the semis of the Champions League. But that Ajax team are going to lose a lot of those fellas in this transfer window which should open things right up just as Thommo is returning to fitness.

And with PSV having to get into the Champions League the hard way, drawing FC Basel of Switzerland in the second qualifying round which begins in just a month’s time… preseason training has already begun ahead of time. In fact they’re a week into it already.

PSV.nl: “PSV head coach Mark van Bommel put his players through their paces on the first day of pre-season training at De Herdgang training facilities. Jorrit Hendrix, Mauro Júnior, Trent Sainsbury, Matthias Verreth, Sam Lammers, Nick Viergever, Bart Ramselaar, Jordan Teze, Pablo Rosario, Joël Piroe, Luuk Koopmans, Mike van de Meulenhof, Hidde Jurjus, Zakaria Aboukhlal, Dante Rigo, Mohamed Ihattaren and Derrick Luckassen did a lot of running, before they started to practise incisive passing and precise finishing. Ryan Thomas and Hirving Lozano trained separately from the main group.”

Thommo training aside from the main group. Not quite back to full fitness then but he’s getting there and we’re a little while away from the season yet. A month until that first game, much longer until the league yarns. It’s been ten months since he sustained his injury.

A number of internationals aren’t with the squad at the moment – although Mexican star Hirving Lozano is, he’s still recovering from an injury against Michael Woud’s Willem II back in April. However Lozano’s still likely to be sold on this window, with Napoli very keen for his signature. Fullback Angeliño is also likely to be bought back by Manchester City and Luuk de Jong is another whose name gets in the rumour mills. They have signed Ibrahim Afellay though and Arjen Robben is a possibility by the sounds of it."

UCL qualifying 2nd round PSV 1 Basel at HT.

Trent Sainsbury in the bench.

Thomas not in match day squad. Understand still not yet at full fitness after that bad knee injury. Wonder if he will try work his way back through the PSV II side.

Won’t be easy PSV first team are a quality side.

Finished 3-2 to PSV who were down 1-2 until 89 mins.

2nd leg in Basel next week. 

1-1 at HT 2nd leg in Basel UCL qualifier.

PSV up 4-3 on aggregate, but Basel have more away goals.

Looks like it will go down to the wire. Thomas not in match day squad.

PSV lose 2-1, out of the Champions League now.

PSV start Eredivisie season with 1-1 draw at Twente. Thomas not in match day squad.

PSV II start their season in Dutch 2nd tier next week. Maybe Thomas will get games there first.

From this week's Flying Kiwis.

"It’s been slow progress back from that knee injury that Thommo suffered almost a year ago. Even after missing the entirety of last season after signing for PSV, he still wasn’t ready to take any part in preseason as he trained away from the main group. 

But it seems his necessary exile is over now, finally ready to get back to unlimited football training… although they’re starting him off with the U19s to begin with just to ease him back in. He’s missed a lot of time so it all makes sense. Last thing you want is to skip a step out of impatience and get hurt again."

https://twitter.com/RJDM854/status/1156914131741630466/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1156914131741630466&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Ftheniche-cache.com%2Ffootball%2F2019%2F8%2F5%2Fflying-kiwis-august-6

PSV played a Europa League qualifying game this morning against Haugesund in Norway. 1-0 win for PSV but Thomas not in the squad. Return leg in the Netherlands is next week.

Ryan Thomas is making agonisingly slow progress, currently setting baby steps with PSV U19 to gain rhythm. It has been suggested he won't be fiit to enter the first team squad until after the winterstop. If he does it all, judging by fierce competition...

Fair to say he won't be involved in the Ireland/Lithuania matches!

The main thing is that he recuperates 100%. Another ACL would pretty much mean 2 years on the sidelines and likely a move away from PSV. 

Back in full training with 1 team squad

https://twitter.com/PSV/status/1161251238304002049

Great news!

https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/115004002/all-whites-midfielder-ryan-thomas-making-progress-as-return-from-injury-nears

PSV Ryan Ryan: "Every day you walk back to your car, you hope that you have got a little better that day"

A year without football PSV player Ryan Thomas tore his cruciate ligament a year ago. NRC followed his rehabilitation. "I feel like a football player again."

It happened in a training jar. Four against four, oldies against young ones. "I was with the oldies," says Ryan Thomas. Slidings were forbidden, but he threw himself for a shot with a straight right leg. "Do you know the block tacks that make you hear such a bang? It was one like that. ”Full impact, on a stretched leg.

If only PSV's midfielder had pulled his leg back. But yes, new club, new trainer - then you don't restrain yourself. For example, Thomas (24) tore his front cruciate ligament on Friday, August 17, 2018, during his fourth training for PSV. He finished the party, but the crazy feeling remained in his leg. Someone from the medical staff had seen the moment. "He already said: it didn't look good," says Thomas.

The following Monday, the doctor did the same test as a week earlier, when Thomas was medically approved during his transfer from PEC Zwolle to PSV. Then everything was fine. But now his lower leg had far too much slack compared to his upper leg.

After the MRI test in the hospital it was clear: the anterior cruciate ligament was torn. An operation and a six to nine month recovery. Maybe even a year. And after that?

He never cries, says Thomas, but that day his girlfriend saw fiery red eyes.

Merlin DalemanDay 68

He is fairly mobile, can walk a little: from parking garage to lunch room and back. During the operation a hamstring tendon from his right leg was placed in his knee joint to form a new cruciate ligament. "Unbelievable what they can do," says Thomas.

The knee itself gives no complaints. "Sometimes you forget that there is a hole in your hamstring now," says Thomas. So he lifted his daughter Lily from behind the couch, resulting in a flaming pain in his thigh. "As if your muscle was torn."

It is October 24, 2018: Champions League, Tottenham Hotspur home. We meet in the center of the city. NRC has provided a basket of kiwis, Thomas is smiling. "I get that more often." The area around Te Puke, his native village in New Zealand on the northern island, is the epicenter of kiwi exports, he says. Anyone who wants to earn something as a teenager does so in protein cultivation.

In rugby crazy New Zealand, petite Thomas was more suited to football. He came to the Netherlands at the age of eighteen, via-via his mentor and trainer Declan Edge arranged an internship at PEC Zwolle. He convinced, got a contract. His club won the KNVB cup that first season, Thomas scored the first two goals from PEC in the memorable cup final against Ajax (5-1). A few years later, after a match against PSV, former PEC coach Ron Jans says that the agile midfielder can make it to Real Madrid - so the Dutch top three anyway.

PSV struck in the summer of 2018. "I had worked so hard to get here," says Thomas. "And then this happens. In the first week: off season. ”He shows the MRI photo: an explosion of frayed wire, where there was once a cruciate ligament.

Because of the privacy law, PSV is not allowed to communicate about the injury, but of course he can. It seems to him something to document the year through conversations. As long as it doesn't become a sob story . He mentions Abdelhak Nouri's fate. And Thomas' sister, who healed from cancer but now misses one lung and two ribs. Or: what are we talking about? Annoying is a word that he uses more often throughout the year. "I have often said that it is my ambition to play Champions League. So this is annoying. But we will get there. "

Day 103

Champions League is back in town. It is the afternoon before PSV plays against Barcelona, on November 28, 2018. At the De Herdgang complex, the two Under-19 teams will meet. Declan Edge is visiting, Thomas' old trainer who came over from New Zealand and will try his luck in Sweden. He is immensely interested in Dutch football. "How is Gerald Vanenburg doing?"

There are things to look forward to. Thomas is going to do a sprint at the end of the week, for the first time. He won't pull a bottle around it. "Mentally it is tasty, an incentive," says Thomas. "That's enough to keep me going. Even if I play again later, I will not do anything special to celebrate. The game itself, that feeling, that's enough. I don't need champagne for that. ”

Winter is coming. Whether Thomas will go to training camp is still unclear. It doesn't have to be that way with him. "It is nice to be with the team. But if they have discussions, I will not participate. And if they don't train either. ”

Sometimes it eats on him, the way he got injured. "When I think back, I am pissed offthat I did it," says Thomas. "Nine out of ten times you let a shot like that go on training. We also scored two more goals. But you want to show the new trainer that you give everything, "he says. "This would not have happened to me at PEC, I think."

Earlier that morning we met at TopSupport, the 'medical partner' of PSV at St. Anna Hospital. Rehabilitation takes place mainly here in the first months. Away from the club, where everything is about football.

If football drops out, 80, 90 percent of their lives fall away

Huub Stevens sits on a bench with a towel in his neck. A player of Jong PSV stretches out on a mat, amateur athletes also rehabilitate among the pros. Thomas makes his miles on the treadmill. He is naturally already running at his front feet. "That's good," says physiotherapist Pim van Duin. Less stressful for the knee than the heel landing, he explains.

Thomas does coordination exercises that he has never done before. "Now his balance is better than a year ago, I dare to say," says Van Duin. "We know from research that in one in four cases a cruciate ligament tears off within two years. The same knee or the other. An important aspect within rehabilitation is therefore the prevention, by steering on the position of the knee during movements. Fortunately, footballers are not concerned with that. Or actually not 'happy', because if you look at prevention, it is good if they do it even more consciously. ”

Van Duin sees them passing by, top athletes whose career is suddenly suddenly interrupted. "If football drops out, 80, 90 percent of their lives fall away. What an outlet is, they can't play football. Netflix, Playstation all day? Nice for three weeks, six weeks too. Even longer? Terrible."

Merlin DalemanDay 191

They have moved from an apartment in the center to a house in Stratum in Eindhoven. Thomas, his girlfriend Nikky Veenstra and daughter Lily, one year old. Two French bulldogs roam the house. Neighborhood children play on the square in front of the house and the ball rolls. The February sun stimulates the thought of football. But the decision has since been made: this season he will no longer take action.

There is football on it in the living room: ADO-Ajax. He hardly watches football outside of PSV, he says. Why not? "I find it annoying. When I watch, I study the game, I look at what I can bring to my own game . But yes, I don't have a game . "

He did not go to Qatar during the winter break, but did go to Barcelona on vacation. Presenter and former player Hans Kraaij Jr. was at the club. "He broke his leg once. He said it nicely: you're with the team, but not really. You stand on the outside. You have lunch, but you are not in team discussions. You are in the gym, you train alone. "

The knee is "on schedule," he says. But he has a lot of pain with the hamstring, sometimes with the Achilles tendon. And he has had the flu. „You constantly push your body. Normally you only do maintenance during the season. Now it's just pre-season , but all the time. Today [Sunday] I am free, so I will start the week pain-free tomorrow. From then on it is muscle pain every day. "

His girlfriend joins. "He has a tough mental life. Better that I sometimes go away with Lily. Then we simply distance ourselves from him, do our thing. But there are also days when he is very cheerful, very cheerful. "

He says he can hide how he feels. "Whether I have a good or bad day. But she can decipher that very well. Recently I suggested going away for the weekend, just casual. Then she asked: shouldn't you work then? So I said: the physio gave me time off. Then she immediately knows that things didn't go well that week. "

She: "I did say," You have to talk. " Or yes, you don't have to do anything. But if you don't talk, I can't help you. So now he comes home, he says: today this happened, I am in more pain here, things like that. Then I know what to expect. ”That is getting better, she says. "But yes, it is sometimes difficult because he is so calm, introverted."

While he is sitting in his cocoon, she keeps the overview at home. The move? Her work. They go to PSV-Feyenoord in no time, the babysitter is busy with Lily. Ryan is looking for his club suit. "Look at the washing machine," she says. "Well, things like that." Where is this, where is that. "

What it is like to live with a revitalizing athlete is hard to fathom for others, she says. "He doesn't do a lot at home at the moment because I just think he is doing a lot in his head. And not with the move, or standard things. I think it's no more than normal for me to take that on, he can focus on himself. Friends don't always understand that. That's fine, as long as I can get rid of them. "

Merlin DalemanDay 222

This is what a day looks like: at nine o'clock in the morning at the club, a massage. Thirty to forty minutes on the exercise bike. Some exercises in the fitness room, warming up the muscles. Then outside, a little more than an hour of 'football work': dribbling, passing, accelerating, careful shooting. Then back in the gym for the heavier work: squads, box jumps, deadlift. Lunch. Then it is the upper body's turn, in the powerhouse. Thomas: "Today I was lucky: only an afternoon massage."

It is four days for Ajax-PSV, the squatter in the competition. The competition glides past him. His goal: "Every day you walk back to your car, you hope that you have got a little better that day."

He spoke with Under-19 trainer Ruud van Nistelrooij, who himself tore his cruciate ligament and is perhaps the best example of someone who came out stronger. "He said: make mental notes of what you are going through. Don't let everything glide past you. Be aware of what you feel, what you think, so that at certain moments you realize how far you have come. And that's a big deal too , when I think of what I can do now compared to a few weeks ago. Those are big steps. "

Merlin DalemanDay 272

His knees have a past. He had surgery on a congenital defect three years ago: his kneecaps have never grown into one. Former Czech top player Pavel Nedved also had that. Not very problematic, but it often annoyed Thomas. That was over after that operation. He became a better player, relieved of nagging pains. But now that he is pushing the limits of his recovery capacity, the irritation is playing again.

It is May 16, 2019, end of season. After the Ajax championship, it became extinct at De Herdgang training complex. Thomas and physiotherapist Rob Ouderland are again working together on a field. Ouderland is the man who has been taking care of Thomas at the club for more than half a year. "You also have a photo of me on your bedside table, right?"

He monitors the load, always asks where it hurts. He knows when to say something, when not. "You hope it goes up in a straight line. But in practice it is more this, "says Ouderland with his hands zigzagging up.

He already realized that things were not going well, a month ago.

He had become a zombie, says Thomas himself. "You come home, say nothing, do nothing, want nothing. The problem is that we as football players take on everything. You don't want to ask for help. It is always: "My problem, my problem." It is almost an understatement what a draw this draws on my girlfriend, "says Thomas. "It took eight months for me to realize that."

She had been quieter for a while, he says. "Nothing for her." So he asked what was there. "I was told that it felt like she had been on her own for half a year. I had no idea. I thought everything was fine. I felt so bad that I did this to her. I didn't even notice it. "

He took a few days off from the routine. Ouderland: “It is part of the darkest days. Right ? You would not have woken up without that silence from Nikky or that signal. "

The process is frustrating, says Thomas, but also "fascinating as the body sometimes reacts". Like when he made a certain movement, spreading away at a certain angle with force on the right leg. "It was new to that thing. Your cruciate ligament tells your brain how your knee stands, and if the new cruciate ligament has not yet made a certain turn, it says to your brain: what was that? ”

Ouderland nods. "It was once a hamstring, a stupid tendon structure. Those handsome surgeons hang them in the joint, and then you start remodeling them in the functional direction that you ask. Then come those complex factors that belong to the game at its level: explosiveness in eleven against eleven situation, all kinds of circumstances. That knee and crotch strap must adapt to that. He learns. "

Yet it will never be the cruciate ligament it was. "It will always be a surrogate," says Ouderland. "But there are plenty of examples of people who have successfully returned. Our task is to return it as safely as possible. It is already a knee with a scar, but that scar should be so strong that it will get a very stable knee for football. ”

Day 361

Tanned, the hair cut short. The vacation - to Curacao - is over. He still has the bracket on the teeth of his upper jaw. He looks patent, looks strong. "I feel firmer, more secure in the field." By the time he regained his lost muscle weight with protein shakes and creatine, he had gained five kilos. "Especially moisture, because of that mess." Now he is back to his old weight, but the muscles have remained. "What I learned from Van Nistelrooij: you will never again have the opportunity to work on yourself in this way. That you are only concerned with yourself for twelve months and do not have to think about the competition. In a certain way, it also helps you. "

It is Tuesday, August 13, 2019 and Thomas is training again with the first. "I feel like a football player again." After two weeks with PSV Under-19, Mark van Bommel said last Saturday: come with us. And so he is again in the selection of PSV. Now only 'free man', so always with the controlling party. "The trainers may not want me to take on the defensive duels. But I am ready. ”We now have to wait for that first game, those minutes in the first. It is a matter of weeks yet, he hopes.

He dares everything again. Yes, also block a ball. What about his self-blame, about that action in that party game now a year ago? "When I said that, I fully involved myself. But you know, I'm okay with it now. It's just what football players do: when someone shoots, you stuff your leg in between. If you can block a ball, you do that. "

Looking back, the year was "worse than I imagined." Early spring was the low point, after more than half a year. The standstill, sometimes decline. "Often I could not finish the program because of pain on my knees from my previous surgery. That went into my head. It annoyed me to a point that I really became a little depressed. "

He started talking more, he says. At home, of course. With his family; his parents have been living in the Netherlands for a number of years. Sometimes with Declan, his old trainer. With 'a kind of mental coach' too, 'someone who brings body and mind into balance'. He can recommend it to everyone: talk about it.

Is everything in order at home again? "It was not that we were not doing well. It didn't go well with me. You do not realize that you are not doing well. I needed her to realize that. "

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/08/16/je-hoort-erbij-maar-niet-echt-a3970291

https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/115147483/all-white-ryan-thomas-admits-annoying-yearlong-injury-left-him-depressed-and-frustrated

Ryan Thomas back in action in friendly against FC Koln

https://youtu.be/YrVGGdVLQg4

Anyone know what the commentators were saying about him at the end?

Started got 30 mins before being subbed. Great to see him back at last.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/115563240/all-whites-midfielder-ryan-thomas-makes-debut-for-psv-eindhoven-after-year-out-with-knee-injury

This week's Flying Kiwis

"Can’t expect him to be pushing for Eredivisie games any time in the immediate future and clearly PSV will be cautious with him but he came through this step untroubled. Useful timing too since Thomas, being older than 24 years old, isn’t eligible to play for the academy team apparently so his rehab will rely on a few more of these kinds of contests… which aren’t uncommon in these Euro leagues to be fair. PSV won the game 1-0, by the way.

Also good news – and another indication that Thommo’s making good progress – is that he was included in PSV’s 25-man Europa League group stage squad. It’s a squad that like most Dutch sides has an enormous List B selection of youth players so it’s not like it’s much of a risk including a player not currently fit, plus these games might be a great opportunity to get him some minutes in a month or two. PSV have been drawn with Sporting CP, Rosenborg, and LASK in Group D."

Thomas not in match day squad, as 20 yr old Donyell Malen, scores all 5 goals (2 pens), when PSV whip Vitesse 5-0.

Ajax & PSV already occupy top 2 spots in Eredivisie

From this week's Flying Kiwis.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1171388515386572801

https://twitter.com/i/status/1171499351371202564

https://twitter.com/i/status/1171501165256667136

Named on the bench (though they do name big benches in Dutch football) for the biggest game in Holland, PSV verus Ajax.

Great to see him back after over a year out. 

PSV also play on Thursday (Groningen) - so hopefully he gets some minutes this week.

Finished 1-1. 

No minutes for Thomas

Pardon the almost literal or ‘ad verbatim’ translation, but you’ll get the Kiwi drift.

Ibrahim Afellay and Ryan Thomas are getting closer to their return for PSV. Both players were out of circulation for a long time due to injury injuries, but their return to the Eindhoven team is looming.

Both players were on the bench on Sunday when PSV faced Ajax at home. Ryan Thomas and Ibrahim Afellay are explicitly knocking on the door”” , says Mark van Bommel. "They are taking steps", the PSV coach says at a press conference in preparation for the midweek home game against FC Groningen. "Ryan is taking big steps ahead and Ibi also takes a lot of (baby) steps. I am happy to see what fun they have during training sessions"

Personal note:

Ryan Thomas has a lot of competition in midfield. Having said that, Jorrit Hendrix and Pablo Rosario are liabilities and play courtesy of the absence of Ryan Thomas and Ibrahim Afellay if you ask me. The two came floating to the surface by lack of relative density.

By the way, the best spot to watch Ryan Thomas is from behind the goals because he plays penetrating ‘portrait football’, in sharp contrast with the boring landscape football, perfected by Barcelona to the dreaded ‘tika-taka’.

I wouldn’t be surprised if PSV would take down the two side stands and put three extra tiers on top of both goal ends as a compensation.

On the bench as PSV beat Groningen 3-1 (were up only 2-1 until 92nd minute)

I reckon he will get on to make his debut against PEC Zwolle!

Rides the pine for a 4-0 win at his old club Zwolle.

PSV have a Europa League group game against Rosenburg in Norway tomorrow.

Might be a chance for Thomas to get some minutes.

Next Eredivisie match verus VVV is Monday. 

Read somewhere that for some reason, Thomas ain't eligible to play for PSV II (Jong) team that play in the Dutch 2nd tier.

Last season you had to be under 23 to play for the Jong teams in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie but this season they’ve changed the rules because the first teams were struggling to find game time for their squad players. I’m not sure if PSV have their own policy though

Not in match day squad as PSV win easily 4-1 in Norway.

Interesting because he travelled to Norway with the team

On Soccerway I note PSV only listed a 7 man bench for this Europa League clash.

But for Eredivisie games they typically list 11 on the pine.

Maybe the 2 comps have different rules re replacements.

Ain't going to be easy for Thomas at all, to get playing time. PSV unbeaten after 8 games in Eredivisie, and again look to be in a head to head battle with Ajax for the title (also unbeaten).

He may ironically need some injuries to occur, to get a look in.

PSV are top of their Europa League group, with 2 wins from 2, show there maybe some dead ties in that comp coming up.

...

Did some digging on this and the rules are the same as last season (must be under 23) unless it’s two of the youth teams playing each other. Jong PSV don’t play another Jong team until after Xmas so Ryan will have to play friendlies or hope to do enough in trainings to build on his five or so minutes today.