Very difficult to know if a player is in a good or bad space psychologically, some players need to rest because mentally they are overloaded, says Liverpool legend David James

However there was a time when player rotation was not something which was very common. A team's key players were expected to play every big game, every series or tournament. In a sport like cricket, which has as many as three internationally recognised formats, workload management and player rotation is something every team management works on a lot these days.

We have seen that change take place. Of course a lot of that depends on the bench strength of a certain team or country and how many quality players the coach and the management have at their disposal. Sports science and the data logged on every individual player plays a big part in this as well.

So, what about football? - arguably a way more physical sport than cricket - what was the transition like when sports science began to be used more and more in the beautiful game and what was that transition like? Legendary Liverpool goalkeeper and former England first choice stopper David James was a guest on Times of India's sports podcast Sportscast some time ago and shared his own experience of seeing that transition happen in front of his eyes, when he was an active player. James also stressed on the importance of keeping a very close watch on a players mental state of being and not just his or her physical condition. "Definitely I saw that transition.

I mean, the fact that we needed to warm up before training, when I was a kid, kind of suggests that there was some kind of sports science that was there in a sort of very rudimentary way. But I think football has learnt that there is a level that sports science can get involved (in). There's data now that's produced from training sessions, puts people in red zones and whatever other zones there are and as a player