Assistant manager says days of players having weeks off over the closed season arer over.

Kenny Lunt says that the days of players having six weeks off over the summer before returning to pre-season to recapture that fitness are over.

Crewe Alexandra have always adopted a fitness programme over the summer to allow players to keep ticking over ever since the days of Dario Gradi as manager.

The assistant manager told the club’s official website: “The players will be in over the summer to tick things over. It is something we encourage and they will come in and do a couple of sessions a week.

“Some of them have some catching up to do because they didn’t play as many games as they would have liked in the last few months of the season or they were injured. The more senior players will be in because they have the experience and know the benefit they will get from it.

“It just keeps them ticking over so they give themselves the best chance again when we come in full-time at the end of this month. They all know that a good pre-season puts them in good stead for the start of the season when the games start coming thick and fast.”