Arsenal have added to their medical staff ahead of the return of Premier League football with the appointment of Flo Newton as a first-team doctor.
Newton has been working with the senior setup on occasion since the summer where she joined them on their tour of the USA. Her appointment was officially confirmed today by the Twitter account of the Arsenal Performance and Research Team.
"Huge welcome to Flo Newton who has officially joined as first-team doctor," the tweet said. "Flo is a familiar face to all at Arsenal having worked as part of the Academy for a number of years.
"Flo will work alongside [head of medical services Dr] Gary [O'Driscoll] and the rest of the team."
Newton graduated from UCL in 2008 before undertaking an MSC in Sports Medicine, Exercise and Health. She worked at Queen Mary University before joining Arsenal's academy setup and subsequently stepping up to work with Mikel Arteta's squad on a permanent basis.
Arsenal's performance department has been the subject of much upheaval since the summer 2017 when Darren Burgess arrived as head of high performance, radically restructuring a department that he felt lacked distance from the playing staff. Just over two years later he was sacked after difficulties with Unai Emery's strength and conditioning Julen Masach.
Significantly, however, Arsenal succeeded in retaining O'Driscoll earlier this year when the club doctor, impressed by the impact Mikel Arteta had made on the Gunners, pulled the plug on a switch to Liverpool that had seemed inevitable.
Instead of working alongside Jurgen Klopp at the Premier League's champions-elect O'Driscoll has instead played a significant role in Arsenal's response to the coronavirus pandemic, winning further admiration at a club where he is already a popular figure.
The former doctor of the British and Irish Lions was also on hand when Arsenal became the first Premier League club to formally reopen their training ground last month.
