United first team physiotherapist Neil Dalton (ND) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Paul Newton (PN) at Thursday's open training day for the local media, Dalton first talking about the commencement of pre-season training for the senior Blues :
ND
It is the first day back of pre-season for the professionals, the YTS lads were back in yesterday. They all got a programme off me at the back end of last season with a couple of weeks of rest and then sort of three or four weeks of maintenance and just building a little bit of fitness up so they are ready for today. So, we will get them back in today, a few little tests and see what they have done over the summer and what type of shape they are in.
PN
Of course attention will be on the three players who missed the back end of last season through injury, Chris Chantler, Rory Loy and Lee Miller. What shape have they come back in?
ND
Yeah, Chantler and Miller obviously missed the back end of last season. Miller had a minor groin operation when the season was finished, obviously down to his situation, so he has not been able to do much running over the summer so he might be a little bit behind the lads that are starting now. But, this is a case of we take him nice and steady and build him up day by day so he is fit for the start of the season basically.
Chantler was a little bit different, he was a little bit further on so he has actually been running for the last sort of three weeks or so. He went into Manchester City two or three times when I was on my holidays and he is going great guns, he has been sprinting, he has been doing some fartlek runs and things like that. So, I don't foresee any problems with him bar than he hasn't kicked a ball for ten weeks or so.
Rory's is a different situation, unfortunately for Rory with his injury he has been in all summer, so Rory has only had, the lads have been off seven or eight weeks, Rory has only actually had his two weeks holiday and an extra couple of days. He has been in for the remainder of it with me and obviously down at Lilleshall for a week for a bit of rehabilitation there.
So, pleasingly he is kicking on really well now, again he will be a little bit behind the lads and he may not do every single session that all the fit professionals do. But, in the main what we are trying to do is get him as much as possible in the first couple of weeks running-wise so we get that good base along with the others, and we will catch up the football later on.
PN
Barring any injuries in pre-season we are expecting all three players to be fit for the start of the campaign on August 18th?
ND
Yeah, absolutely, that goes along with everybody, the basic thing of pre-season is getting as fit as possible but as safely and injury free as possible, so we have got all 20-odd players fit for the gaffer (Greg Abbott) for that first game. As I say, they are fit and strong, and we don't want to create any injuries pre-season if that can be helped, and that is the case in every pre-season really.