Notts County Football Club

The players have coped brilliantly in excess of 30-degrees heat with medical and fitness tests including a gruelling Yo-Yo test, as well as agility exercises all to test the players on their fitness on week one.

Strength & Conditioning Coach Mike Edwards also gave players fitness programmes throughout the close season to ensure their fitness was ticking over.

Knight told Magpie Player: “Day one was fantastic to be fair and the lads have come back in good shape.

“We had a lot of medical students and interns in to help us and we have to thank them for their time and we hope they enjoyed the experience working with professional footballers.

“They helped us with all the screening and fitness tests, just looking at height, weight, body-fats and then the YoYo and agility work, which was hard in 35 degrees.

“And then later this week the balls are out and the lads have worked really hard, they’ve obviously been looking after themselves this summer. We’ve got some great data that we can analyse. 

“We had a big group with so many trialists, but it went smooth.”

Meanwhile Wilson also praised the group of interns that were so important in week one.

He added: “We had a lot of screening and this will help us understand how far we can push the players throughout the season and we’ve got some great feedback and information that we can analyse. We are thankful for the interns who have come in all week and really been beneficial to us.

“This will help us to organise programmes for individual players and also help build our injury-risk reduction plans. We have put a lot of work into this. It will help improve our performances.

“All the players are excited and happy to be back. There is a good vibe around and the next six weeks are so important. We will be looking to make sure we get them all fit and prepared for the first game, which we can’t wait for.”

Magpie Player subscribers can watch the full interview by clicking here.