Ben Rome talks about catching up with fitness levels
It’s been good to have a break after such an intensive start to the season with quite a few games in a short space of time. We have been able to get the players batteries recharged and work on individuals so we can bring them up to speed if they have not had many playing minutes under their belt. The break has allowed me to work on sharpening up on some parts of the player’s fitness, which will bring the players all up to the same level.
When we came back to pre-season training, all the players we had here then were tested, which were used for their fitness programmes. The lads who came in later or during the start of the season did not have this, so when they arrived we did not know what their fitness levels were. This break has allowed us to fitness test the whole squad to allow us to assess every player on an individual basis to allow us to move forward with each player.
All the players who were behind the others have now caught up massively in this couple of weeks they have had with us. It was hard for some of them and as Reece (Wabara) said he hadn’t done a great deal of pre season work at Manchester City or played many games but he has come in and done fantastically well. This couple of weeks has allowed us to work on sharpening him up a little bit.
If players are not fully fit you always run the risk of them getting injuries during training and games but we work here every morning on preventative measures by running pre hab stretching and activation sessions with all the players before the main training. This helps alleviate any muscle injuries, which is working well on the squad.