Coach responsible for putting Rotherham among fittest sides in Europe joins Imps

The backroom staff at Lincoln City have been handed a boost with the appointment of a new head of performance from recently promoted League One side Rotherham United.

Ross Burbeary was named as the new head of performance at the Imps on Thursday, and he will oversee the medicine and sports science departments at Lincoln City across the first team and academy.

It is a key move for Lincoln, as they look to address the recent injury worries that have plagued the side in recent seasons, and the appointment of a proven, experienced coach like Burbeary shows the ambition to improve on-field performance.

Burbeary brings vast experience to the role thanks to his previous positions at Doncaster Rovers, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest and Rotherham United, who recently won promotion to the Championship.

He has also spent time in America with NHL ice hockey team the Buffalo Sabres, and while at Rotherham, Burbeary guided the Millers to a third placed rank for average team sprint distance in the whole of Europe.

The next step in Lincoln’s staff recruitment is now to find a first team manager, after Michael Appleton left his role at the end of the season. It was initially looking set to be Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley to take on the job, but he committed his future to the Irish side on Friday.

Lincoln City’s director of football, Jez George, spoke in glowing terms of Burbeary. He said: “This is a key appointment for us. Ross joins us with a huge reputation, will bring the experience, knowledge and expertise that we need to this department and will have a massive impact on the players.

“He will also be a cultural architect in helping to create the environment we want at the Soper of Lincoln Elite Performance Centre.

“We look forward to Ross developing a new team within this department to give our players the best possible provision so that we can maximise their physical potential, keep them fit and optimise the physicality of our team next season and beyond.”

Burbeary added: “My role is to oversee the sport science and medical provision, but as head of performance it rolls out to be more than that – about how we get the best out of players.

“They are human beings, not robots we can programme, so I’m keen everyone is willing to think laterally about how we do that.

“The club has been successful over the past few years so I’m inheriting some things we do really well but the changes this summer are also really encouraging so it feels like a really exciting time to be coming to Lincoln.”