MORTON have appointed their first ever head of performance as the club looks to overhaul training methods.

Graeme Henderson has been working with the Ton players during pre-season, and has previously been with manager Ray McKinnon at Dundee United.

Formerly with the SFA, Partick Thistle and Stirling Albion, Henderson becomes a full-time member of the backroom staff.

The 30-year-old, who will focus primarily on working with the Morton first team, says he jumped at the opportunity to join the club on a two-year deal.

He told the Tele: “It’s a fantastic opportunity and when the gaffer gave me the call and asked me to come in, it was certainly something I was interested in.

“In terms of the club and the whole surrounding of the players, the backing we’ve had, we see it as a really good project to try and improve and do as best as we can.
 “My job will be focusing on the first team. 

“I’m available for conversations to help John Sutton [head of development squad] with the reserves in terms of support there.

“But my main focus is on the first team and trying to improve the club and get it into the best position we can.”

Charged with helping keep the players in tip-top shape, Henderson has worked with a range of different players in previous jobs.

He has worked with part-timers at Stirling Albion, full-time players at Partick Thistle and with youngsters at the SFA.

As well as holding a UEFA A Licence coaching badge, the new head of performance says his past experiences will stand him in good stead for his job at Morton.

Players have already praised the impact of the use of pre-hab sessions, trying to prevent injuries before the warm-ups, nutrition being looked after, wearing GPS vests during training to monitor data and strength and conditioning sessions.

Henderson added: “I’m fortunate the manger buys into it and he’s a big believer in getting the players into the best shape to be out on the pitch.

“It’s up to me to ensure the players are fit first and foremost, if the players aren’t fit or are unable to participate in training then we’re not going to see the benefits of having these players at the club. We’ve also introduced quite a lot of new things for the players coming back in pre-season.

“All the things we’ve introduced are to help the players be in the best shape they can be to train first of all and then to participate in the games, whether that be for five minutes or the full 90.

“It’s not something that we will see the benefits of overnight, but certainly we hope over the course of the season, in particular when it comes to the long hard slog at March and April time we’ll see players are fit and able to play and hopefully we can look.

“My role isn’t to dictate to players that you must eat X, Y and  Z, you must have this and that, it’s more in terms of support and guidance.

“We’ve had chats with players to give some players a wee bit more advice, but the knowledge these guys already have is really good.”