Huddersfield Town players warned to expect tough pre-season

May 5 2009 by Doug Thomson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

LEE CLARK today began a series of individual debriefs with his Town players and told each one: “Enjoy your holiday, because there’s some hard work ahead.”

After the meetings, the players will go their separate ways before reporting back for pre-season training on Monday, June 29.

Each will have an individual training programme to follow between now and then, but Clark warned: “That’s just the beginning.

“The players know they have to be ready to hit the ground running on day one of pre-season, and it’s going to be very tough.”

Clark’s schedules will be partly based on a string of fitness tests carried out on each player last week.

And the boss added: “I want us to be the fittest team in League I, and pre-season is the one time you can get down to some real work without the distraction of competitive games.

“Being as fit as you possibly can be is a prerequisite for any footballer, because success cannot be achieved without it.

“They will have to push themselves to the limit and go through the pain barrier in pre-season, but it will set them up for what’s to come.”