Whatsapp groups and number-crunching - The science behind Doncaster Rovers' team selection

They will then have access to their own tailored report, via the squad's Whatsapp group, giving them all sorts of statistics, metrics and data relating to their own individual performance in the game. Similar number-crunching is relayed to manager Grant McCann and his senior coaching staff throughout the week, after each training session, to aid them in their thinking for the next game's starting XI.

The sports science team - which has been boosted in numbers since McCann's return to the club, with another arrival on the cards - are the ones who craft said reports. It is a practice that is commonplace at virtually every professional club nowadays and goes to highlight just how much work goes on behind-the-scenes as clubs aim to squeeze every last drop out of the resources at their disposal.

The hard work that goes into collating the numbers is fully appreciated by McCann, who extols the virtues of being able to lean on the data.

"It's not just as easy as picking 11 players and saying 'right, there's the team'," he tells the Free Press.

"We have to look at it and see where they are from a jump test point of view, because power-based stuff is important and we can tell how fatigued a player is by putting him on a jump and seeing where he's at. There's a lot of work that goes into us picking a team. And I think what's been really good for us this season is we've not picked up many injuries.

"There's so many metrics we can break it down into: minutes, spells, points in the game, how quick are players running, etc.

"There's a lot of stuff that we look at.

"Straight away after a game the players get the feedback, and it's a good learning tool for them. The sports science team put the results into the players' Whatsapp group straight after. It tells them what they've covered, what their sprint distance is like, how many accelerations, decelerations - they'll know exactly where they are then.

"They've all got different metrics in terms of their own positions and what they need to hit. For example, Harry Clifton is just pure energy and can cover 12 or 13km in a game. There's lots of different things to go into it and the players know that when they hit certain levels that we've got a change of winning any game."