By Agency Report
Former Super Eagles striker Odion Ighalo along his Manchester United teammates are reportedly stepping up their personal training regimes in anticipation of the potential restart of the Premier League.
The influential Manchester Evening News (MEN) said on Wednesday that the United’s strength and conditioning coach Charlie Owen was in constant dialogue with a number of players and some have amplified their endurance training amid the possibility of a return to the club’s Carrington training complex next month.
Players are also focusing on the ‘determining factors’ – strength and power training – to better prepare them for competitive training if social distancing restrictions are lifted for athletes in the UK. Premier League clubs’ preference is for at least three weeks of a ‘mini pre-season’ prior to playing competitive matches.
United have indefinitely postponed training at Carrington in line with government advice for people to stay at home, but Arsenal, West Ham United and Brighton opened up their training grounds to players for individual work on Monday.
“The manager sent me a message that just said: ‘Stay training and keep working, we don’t know when we’ll be back, so we don’t want any surprises because there are rumours of how many games, so just be healthy, stay fit and maintain good hygiene,’” Axel Tuanzebe told the MEN.
“The club has been very supportive and provided plans for training, nutrition and what not to oversee this period. And we do have group chats, FaceTimes, videos of us training and we have our own Instagram page that we follow to sustain and keep up to date with what’s going on with the new training.”
The Premier League will hold a meeting on Friday to discuss a possible restart in June, although there is mounting uncertainty over the 2019-20 season after the French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe confirmed the Ligue 1 season will not resume.
