Ipswich Town's new head of sports science, Andy Costin, says his job will be to get the players 'fit and robust' for the season ahead.

The 33-year-old grew up in Australia and quit his job as head of sport at a college to relocate to England and pursue a career in football in 2018.

He was initially turned down by more than 30 clubs before finally landing an internship at League Two club Stevenage. There, he was quickly promoted to their head of sports science before soon being head-hunted by Championship club Bristol City.


New Town chief executive Mark Ashton has subsequently appointed several of his former Bristol City support staff, including Luke Werhun (head of operations), Andy Rolls (director of performance) and Costin.

“I’m really excited to be part of the project which is starting here,” said Costin.

“As head of sports science I’ll oversee the pitch-based stuff, as well as the strength and conditioning, in conjunction with the head of strength and conditioning.

“That’s my primary role and I’m also doing some work in the data side of things, like recruitment and some other areas as well.”

On being reunited with Rolls, Costin said: “I would guess he was a mentor for me initially. Now that we’re colleagues and have been colleagues I learn a lot from him every day just about the way he approaches the game.

“He’s so experienced in his knowledge, the things he’s won and seen. You can learn a lot from him.”

Costin is also reunited with Town's new fitness coach Jon Ashton, someone he knows from his time at Stevenage.

“I’m really happy to work with Jon again," said Costin. "He’s a great guy and I’m really excited for him to be part of this journey.

“The manager’s been great. Cooky’s been really good and I’m really excited to see where this goes because he’s hungry for success like we all are.

“That’s not just the management team, it’s the physios and the strength and conditioning guys, the guys that have been here for a couple of years.

“They know how big Ipswich is and they know where Ipswich should be, so it’s really important that we get off to a good start.”

Town's players are currently away from the club ahead of a return to pre-season training at the end of June.

“This rest period is really important and then we’ll start ramping up later in June and try to increase loading and then obviously matches come thick and fast late in pre-season," said Costin.

“My job is to get us fit and robust. That’s essentially my job, and making sure that the players can do what the manager wants them to be able to do at the weekend.”

There's been significant change to the backroom staff at Ipswich over the last few weeks.

First team coach Matt Gill, keeper coach Jimmy Walker, fitness coach Jim Henry and director of football Dave Bowman have all departed.

Manager Paul Cook has so far added Gary Roberts, Francis Jeffers and Ian Craney as first team coaches, with John Keeley the new keeper coach.

New Town chairman Mike O'Leary says the club's new US-based owners will strive to make the club the better than their League One rivals 'in all areas', former manager Paul Lambert having said the club's structure was 'all wrong' prior to being sacked in February.