Crewe players put through paces by fitness coach Andy Franks

The Crewe Alexandra players were back in full-time training today as conditioning coach Andy Franks ran fitness sessions. The players were certainly put through their paces at the club’s training ground at Reaseheath on their first day back with Franks introducing long-distance and interval sprints to re-introduce them to their fitness work.

A number of players were given permission to miss today’s opening fitness session as their pre-booked holidays may have overlapped for a few days. For example Mathias Pogba has been granted permission to watch his brother Paul Pogba play in the World Cup for France over in Brazil.

Those players missing sessions will have to do extra on their return from holiday.

Steve Davis told the club’s official web-site: “We wanted to try something a bit differently this summer. We have changed it to see if it works out better in the early part of the season.

“The players have had longer off but have come in a bit earlier. They are doing some fitness work with Andy (Franks) but the modern day footballer usually comes back with a solid base of fitness anyway. It is a bit different from the 1980s now.

“The work starts now and it is always exciting to see the younger players come into training and join up with the first team. Hopefully some of those will emerge and make that step up.”