Crewe Alexandra manager Alex Morris is a keen advocate of players ticking over fitness wise over the summer after being introduced to it as a young player himself.

Now in charge of his first pre-season as a senior manager, Morris has continued the trend of players coming into the training twice a week to work on their conditioning ahead of the full-time return to pre-season on 22nd June.

The players are invited into training on a Tuesday and Thursday and those that have further to travel have to fulfil individual programmes at home or at local fitness centres.

Morris told crewealex.net: “Most of the players have reported back for the twice a week sessions. They have come back in shape and I think it benefits them to come in and do the work with their team-mates. They can have a bit of a social afterwards and a catch up and I think it all helps.

“We have been doing this for years at this club. He pre-dates back to Dario’s early days as manager and I think it helps them hit the ground running when we report back on a full-time basis.

“If they live further afield then we feel  it is counterproductive for them to travel in and then train for a couple of hours and then drive back, so they have their own programmes that they have to do at home or in a field.

He added: “It is all about building those fitness level back up, so they are ready for what is going to be a tough pre-season, so they are ready for when the season starts at the end of July.”