Shrewsbury Town boss Sam Ricketts happy with fitness levels as work ramps up

Town have been back in training for a week at Sundorne Castle after four months off, with just over a month left until the League One curtain-raiser.

And, from this week, players can begin engaging in forms of contact within training, while still adhering to social distancing measures and avoiding smaller parts of the training complex.

Shrewsbury could not ensure players stuck to fitness programmes during the months of lockdown while players were on furlough and not permitted to work, but Ricketts says his squad looked after themselves and returned in good shape.

“I’ve been really pleased with how the players have come back in,” said the Town boss, who has welcomed new signings Josh Daniels, Rekeil Pyke and Scott High into training.

“Gone are the days of when players come back a couple of stone overweight, the players naturally have a professionalism about them now where they look after themselves.

“Obviously we have to get used to playing football again, the rigours of passing, tackling and everything that goes with it. We’re just trying to get back up to speed.

“We’re restricted training-wise, but we’re entering stage two, so there’s an element of contact back in training.

“But we don’t want to break anyone along the way. We want to be as fit as we can but keep everyone injury free at the same time.”

Town have yet to confirm any pre-season friendlies. Non-league Nuneaton Borough have announced a behind-closed-doors clash next Tuesday, and Salop are expected to partake in more warm-up games in due course.

Ricketts admitted putting together a pre-season schedule has proved challenging due to the uncertainties brought up by the global pandemic.

He added: “Now we’re back in we can plan. Before when we didn’t know when we were back we’d end up planning pre-season six or seven times over.

“Now we can get into a little bit of a routine we can pick up the pace and gradually get contact in training and then it’s trying to play games as soon as we can.”

Town last week confirmed the additions of free agent Pyke, a striker who had left Huddersfield and played under Ricketts on loan at Wrexham, Northern Irish winger Daniels from County Armagh side Glenavon and teenage midfielder High on loan from the Terriers, where he played under Shrews’ first-team coach Dean Whitehead.

“They’ve all settled in really well. We’re a really good group here so when we have new signings they settle in quickly,” the boss said. “We’re very accommodating and it’s great to see them settle in and getting used to being around us.”