Inside the Huddersfield Town fitness revolution that has players in best ever shape and form

From the moment Arsene Wenger introduced Tony Adams and co to the concept of broccoli in 1996, the role of nutrition in English football was never going to be the same ever again. It’s no accident that the build of players across the divisions has moved towards the greyhound-like over the past 25 years – and Huddersfield Town are particularly feeling the benefits of that this season.

A series of players have lined up this season to tell us just how well the club have handled their fitness and nutrition. Fresh, cosmopolitan meals are prepared every day by a team of chefs at Canalside and have quickly become the envy of the rest of the division. Recent menu options include stuffed baby squid, chicken and rice gyros, seafood linguine, duck donburi and swordfish alfredo.

Harry Toffolo was already renowned for his remarkable fitness when he arrived from Lincoln City in January 2020, and he is only too happy to tell us enthusiastically about how Town’s backroom staff have helped him take that to another level.

Toffolo says: “I think every club wants to realise how nutrition is massive, and the physical department. I think a key person who has come in and probably deserves a lot of credit is Nessan [Costello], who’s the nutritionist – he’s in charge of everything like that.

“He’s opened the eyes of a lot of us players over what we’re going to be eating. A lot of the time he gives us a lot of food on our plate and I’m going ‘no way I’m going to eat all that’ and he goes ‘no, you need to’; and he gives us different shots.”

Town’s approach does not just extend to shoving platefuls of food in front of their players and saying ‘eat that’, though. Asked if the players are educated on what they are eating and the supplements they