Raphinha, Rodrigo and Patrick Bamford were among the Leeds United players starting pre-season with a day of medical tests on Thursday.
While Marcelo Bielsa waits to get his teeth into the group on the grass at Thorp Arch, the vast majority of the Elland Road roster was at Leeds Beckett University on Thursday morning.
Just five-and-a-half weeks after turning West Bromwich Albion over on the final day of last season, just about all of the players with no international commitments were back.
Kitted out in the new black and yellow training wear the club released on Wednesday night, one by one the players reported for duty at the Headingley campus.
Each of the players were subjected to Covid tests before they were allowed to mix with the rest of the group.
Once they were passed it was onto a series of medical tests arranged by head of medicine and performance Rob Price, along with his own staff and the university experts running the equipment.
Among those spotted on the first day back were Illan Meslier, Luke Ayling, Ian Poveda, Bamford, Stuart Dallas, Raphinha, Rodrigo, Pascal Struijk, Leif Davis and Jamie Shackleton.
Understandably, Robin Koch, Liam Cooper, Tyler Roberts and Mateusz Klich have been given more time off after Euro 2020, while Kalvin Phillips and Diego Llorente play on with their countries.
Adam Forshaw, Kiko Casilla and Helder Costa were the only players, with no international commitments, not spotted on the club’s social media channels.
As ever, the under-23s mixed with the first team and an array of the next generation were seen at Leeds Beckett too.
Crysencio Summerville, Stuart McKinstry, Liam McCarron, new signing Amari Miller, Charlie Cresswell, Max Dean and Joe Gelhardt were all in attendance.
The squad is expected to return to the university tomorrow for day two.
