WHY SHAW IS EXCITED ABOUT RETURNING TO FULL TRAINING

Hi everybody. This has been quite a nice, quiet week at home, but the big news has obviously been our return to training at the Aon Training Complex.

It has been great fun getting back to work and getting closer to team training. Of course, it’s been different because of all the new rules and regulations we’ve had to learn to work with, and we’re still social distancing from one another all the time, but it’s been so nice to be back in the same surroundings as everyone else.

We’ve been split into different groups in different time slots – half of us in the morning, half in the afternoon – so I’ve mostly just been seeing people that I’ve been in the same time session as. Each group trains maybe 15 or 20 minutes after each other and that gives us the chance to have a little chat and see how everyone else is. It’s nice to see the players and staff; everyone’s looking really good from what I’ve seen. A lot of good has come from this week.

Everyone has clearly got a high level of fitness, which shows how dedicated and professional we’ve all been during lockdown. I’ve been running with Jamo a lot – he was in my group to start with, and he looked really sharp.

On Tuesday we saw the group of Paul, Bruno, Angel and Nemanja, and those four are looking very strong and very good. There was a lot of competition and shouting going on in that group. It’s clear that everyone’s still got that winning desire, even in training. We’ve missed that.

At first we were in groups of four, with the players picked at random. It had nothing to do with positions, it was just totally randomised, given a time slot and we all did the same sort of training. It was physically hard going, then some ball work to get us used to the work again and of course some running. The last few days now have been more position-specific. It’s still a set number of people in your group, but a bit more focus on working on your position, so obviously full-backs and centre-backs doing ball work together in my case.

It’s been great to have the ball at my feet again, but to be honest every aspect of it has been enjoyable. Just getting back to training, being back on our own pitches, being in our own training kit… it feels like things are moving forward. We all missed the ball a lot, but I think it’s more that we missed being together. Everyone’s here now, even the lads who have been out injured for a long time, and it feels great.

Now obviously we’re waiting for the clubs to have their meeting and hopefully bring us good news about a return to full training. That’s what we’re all looking forward to. We’re all very excited and hoping that the meeting goes smoothly. I think everyone feels really safe at our training ground because the club has gone to huge lengths to make it that way, and everything has been followed to the letter. We’re even more excited because we feel ready and confident for the season to restart.

Take care of each other and stay safe.

Luke.