With the 2018 World Cup coinciding with the end of the Muslim festival of Ramadan, many footballers will have had to balance fasting with training.<\/b>
\nWith the 2018 World Cup coinciding with the end of the Muslim festival of Ramadan, many footballers will have had to balance fasting with training.
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia are all attending the tournament in Russia this year, and all have majority or large Muslim populations.
For some of those nations, Ramadan ends before their first game, while others such as Saudi Arabia, who lost 5-0 against Russia in the competition\u2019s opening match, have reportedly deferred their fasting until after the tournament.
But for those whose fasting has overlapped with training and playing, how will their preparation have been affected?
Nigel Mitchell is a registered dietitian who has experience of top-level football and has worked with athletes who observe Ramadan.
\u201cOne of the biggest problems from the athletes\u2019 perspective is fluid and hydration,\u201d Mitchell told the Press Association.
\u201cPart of the fast is fluids, so if you train at the hottest time of the day then you\u2019re not able to re-hydrate that\u2019s going to have a big effect on the recovery.
\u201cThere are two schools of thought,\u201d he continued. \u201cYou either train early in the morning when you\u2019ve recovered from the night before, or you train in the evening, an hour or so before you\u2019re going to break your fast, because then you\u2019re straight into food.
\u201cI\u2019ve known people who do both, and I haven\u2019t really got an opinion on what is best. It\u2019s quite individual.\u201d
Former Watford, Wigan and West Brom footballer Nathan Ellington started fasting around the year 2007. He said that while he rarely struggled with combining fasting and training, it was something that required planning.
\u201cYou have to wake up a lot earlier,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to eat breakfast before sunrise, so you have to have the right foods, slow-release energy foods to get through training.
\u201cThe hardest part in the summertime is the amount of sleep you\u2019re able to get, but in terms of training I found that OK.\u201d
With Ramadan ending right at the start of the World Cup, Muslim footballers will not have to think about combining fasting with their tournament preparation for long. Will it have had any effect on them for the rest of the tournament, however?
\u201cThey\u2019re not fasting for 24 hours, they\u2019re fasting in daylight hours,\u201d said Mitchell. \u201cIt seems like a long time, but fasting for 12 hours or so, there\u2019d be no major physiological changes there.\u201d
And as Ellington points out, circumstances such as travel and health can dictate whether Muslims fast or not, with some players in Russia able to defer their fasting.
\u201cIf I don\u2019t have to I won\u2019t do it,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re taught in our religion. You take the concession whenever it presents itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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