Shrewsbury Town set for pre-season return

Steve Cotterill’s first-team squad are set to reconvene at their training base to be assessed and put through tests as attention turns to the upcoming 2022/23 campaign.

There will be less than five weeks until the start of the new third tier season – which kicks off early on July 30 owing to the winter World Cup beginning in November – by the time Cotterill and his fellow staff welcome the Shrewsbury squad back to training.

Town will spend a week blowing off the cobwebs at Sundorne – although players have been on individual summer programmes – before they jet out to Valencia, Spain, for a warm-weather pre-season training camp on July 2.

That trip could consist of a fixture before Cotterill’s men face domestic friendlies against neighbours AFC Telford United, on July 12, and Steve Morison’s Championship outfit Cardiff City the following Tuesday.

Shrews are also likely to arrange a friendly against as-yet unspecified opposition on July 16 and July 23.

Town, meanwhile, are continuing their summer recruitment drive which has so far seen Cotterill add just Coventry City midfielder Jordan Shipley to his ranks – back on May 11.

First-team coach David Longwell this week reported the club are working hard daily on securing new recruits.

Town are in the market for a number of positions, including midfield and forward additions, while there could also be movement in the other direction.

There are currently 12 regular senior first-team players on the books, plus a handful of academy graduates and young professionals.

With the earlier kick-off this season it promises to be a busy few weeks for the Town boss and his head of recruitment Keith Burt.

Half-a-dozen out of contract senior players were released at the end of last season, in which the club finished 18th in League One, while midfielder Josh Vela moved on to Fleetwood despite Town’s offer of a new deal.

Striker Ryan Bowman will be one of the senior stars reporting for pre-season on Monday.

That is despite the 30-year-old undergoing a minor heart operation earlier this month after an irregular heartbeat last term.