2 weeks ago
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Manchester City return to pre-season training having had a few weeks off following their Club World Cup campaign
Manchester City's players return to pre-season training this week with the club and players facing an unprecedented fitness unknown.
The Blues participated in the Club World Cup last month and while they were eliminated in the last 16, it still impacted their summer preparations.
City played four matches in America and went into the tournament not knowing whether their stay in the States would last a couple of weeks or a month.
It meant uncertainty around when the squad would be given time off and how they would then ramp up again for the new season.
City's players have had three weeks off following their defeat by Al Hilal, and now have three weeks to prepare for their Premier League opener at Wolves next month, a much shorter lead in than normal.
And they do so ahead of what could be another lengthy campaign given some players can expect to play more than 60 club matches over the coming months and then head into a World Cup in America next year.
It all adds up to concerns over how City will start the season given their truncated preparation, and how the Blues will fare over the coming months when fitness issues and fatigue could catch up with them.
Rodri spoke last year about the possibility of players going on strike due to the number of games they are being asked to play, Phil Foden told the Manchester Evening News last summer he was burnt out physically and mentally while Manuel Akanji said he might retire at 30 given the volume of matches.
There are evidently concerns within the City squad about the number of fixtures and the limited opportunity for rest periods and physio Craig Lea, who has worked with a host of sports teams, primarily in rugby league but also in football, believes there will be concerns ahead of the new season.
"The biggest challenge is missing out on pre-season," Lea, owner and clinical director of North West based The Physio Lounge, told the Manchester Evening News.
"They will have missed a lot of the early stuff after having time off after the Club World Cup to recover. The off season is a time to recover physically and mentally and to come away from the competitive environment and have some family time.
"They (City) will factor all this in, there is a shorter pre-season but they will have only had a few weeks off which isn't a long time to go into a full season.
"Pre-season is the first time where players get throughout the year where they are not aching or in pain. Players could pick up short term injuries which will then effect the pre-season."
Lea believes there is an increased risk of injury due to City's shorter pre-season, while the club will have less time to build up data testing with players that is then used during the campaign to assess their condition, something that will be keenly felt around the new signings where the Blues do not have previous information to fall back on.
There is also a concern that some players will want to play through knocks and fatigue because it is an opportunity to impress the coaching staff, and Lee feels the impact will be most felt further into the campaign as the matches mount up.
"It will be cumulative affect," he added. "You see that through the season anyway.
"They (City) will put stuff in place and they will be tracking player welfare really closely because not having pre-season and rest time will have an impact on players. They will probably look for opportunities for rest throughout the season, the players might get time off when there is no midweek game or if they are playing on a Monday night.
"There are some benefits, they have been playing at a higher level than normal in pre-season, they will have gelled, they can work on a few things. There are some pros but from a physical and mental reset perspective you do worry about players burning out a bit."
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