Dave has spent more than three decades working in elite sport, including roles with Chelsea, Leeds United, the England national team and the New York Knicks. He is now CEO of Apollo, where his work focuses on helping performance teams use data, technology and AI to better understand player availability, injury risk and performance.

Dave begins by sharing the latest developments in his Blind Screen approach, which looks beyond traditional testing by examining movement quality, control and rotational demands. He explains how Apollo is combining screening information with AI-generated insights, practitioner feedback and individualised exercise recommendations.

The conversation then turns to the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Drawing on his experience of working with England at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, Dave discusses the challenges facing performance and medical teams across a long international tournament: heat, travel, accumulated club workload, recovery, sleep, mental freshness and the need to bring a squad together around one common goal.

This is a practical discussion about the margins that matter at the highest level of sport, from interpreting data more effectively to preparing players and staff for the demands of tournament football.

In this episode you will learn

• How Dave’s Blind Screen approach is developing and being used with elite athletes and teams.
• Why rotational movement may be an important missing consideration in traditional screening methods.
• How AI can help practitioners combine objective data with coaching and clinical insight.
• The key physical demands facing players heading into the 2026 World Cup.
• Why player preparation must become increasingly individualised after a demanding club season.
• The importance of sleep, recovery monitoring, travel planning and heat acclimatisation during a major tournament.
• Why mental freshness, squad togetherness and staff culture can influence performance at international level.
• What Dave learned from working with England at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.

About Dr Dave Hancock
Dr Dave Hancock is the CEO of Apollo and an experienced performance director, chartered physiotherapist and strength and conditioning coach.

Across a career spanning more than three decades in elite sport, Dave has worked as Head Physiotherapist at Leeds United and Chelsea, served on the medical staff of the England national team at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, and spent seven years as Performance Director of the New York Knicks in the NBA.

Through Apollo, Dave now works with sports teams around the world, using athlete management technology, data and AI to support player availability, injury risk management and performance decision-making.

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If you’ve ever wondered how a club without the financial muscle of Europe’s giants consistently outperforms bigger teams, beating Nottingham Forest away, winning at Celtic, and challenging at the top of the Danish Superliga, this conversation tells you exactly how they do it.

Niklas is a rare blend of passion, creativity and evidence-based practice. His presentation at a recent Catapult event had the entire room hooked, and this episode delivers the same energy. From dismantling traditional GPS limitations to redefining how football teams train for micro-actions, set pieces, and physical dominance, Niklas pulls back the curtain on the processes driving Midtjylland’s success.

This episode goes deep into the real-world application of sports science, the balance between data and intuition, and why sometimes the most powerful competitive advantage is simply learning to “solve problems without money.”

Things You Will Learn

• Why FC Midtjylland’s entire model is built on “solving problems without money” and how data gives them a competitive edge.
• How Niklas and his team dominate set pieces using Trackman technology and detailed ball-flight analytics.
• Why GPS alone is blind to football’s most important movements, and how inertial data captures the micro-actions that matter.
• How to use accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers to measure real football movement quality.
• The truth about injury “prediction,” why we still don’t know athletes’ limits, and why subjective data is often your most valuable input.
• How to balance analytics with player feelings, coaching intuition, and the “eyeball test.”
• Why communication, not technology, is the biggest challenge when coaching staffs change.
• Practical ways to design training exercises that actually transfer to match actions (including why traditional rondos may be overrated).
• How to create buy-in across departments in fast-moving environments with shifting coaching teams.
• Why the best decisions come from leading with data first, then layering coaching opinions on top.

About Niklas Virtanen
Niklas Virtanen is the Head of Sports Science at FC Midtjylland, one of Europe’s most forward-thinking football clubs and pioneers in data-driven performance.
From Finland’s Jyvaskyla to the top of the Danish Superliga, Niklas has carved out a journey defined by curiosity, relentless learning, and a willingness to challenge traditional methods. Starting his career as a physiotherapist, he transitioned into coaching, performance, and ultimately sports science — where he discovered his passion for practical, applied, football-specific methodology.
At Midtjylland, Niklas plays a central role in integrating data, performance analytics, inertial technology and coaching processes. His approach blends scientific rigour with real-world applicability, always anchoring decisions in the question: “Does this help the players perform?”
He collaborates closely with coaches, mental performance staff, physios, analysts, and leadership teams, shaping a holistic performance culture built around trust, objective data, and constant communication.
Niklas is known across the professional football community for his high energy, creativity, authenticity, and his commitment to pushing the boundaries of what sports science can be. You’ll often find him speaking to — and learning from — industry leaders such as Chris Barnes and Paul Balsom, who he credits with encouraging him to explore unconventional ideas, test them in the real world, and build evidence from the ground up.
He shares many of these insights on LinkedIn, where he’s become a respected voice for modern performance practitioners.

FREE 7d SCIENCE FOR SPORT ACADEMY TRIAL

SIGN UP NOW: https://bit.ly/SFSepisode241

​ Learn Quicker & More Effectively
​ Optimise Your Athletes' Recovery
​ Position Yourself As An Expert To Your Athletes And Naturally Improve Buy-In
​ Reduce Your Athletes' Injury Ratese
​ Save 100's Of Dollars A Year That Would Otherwise Be Spent On Books, Courses And More
​ Improve Your Athletes' Performance
​ Advance Forward In Your Career, Allowing You To Earn More Money And Work With Elite-Level Athletes
​ Save Yourself The Stress & Worry Of Constantly Trying To Stay Up-To-Date With Sports Science Research