Patrick Bamford has spoken his eagerness to hit the ground running in his first full pre-season at Leeds United.
Speaking to the club’s official media channel, the striker gave his thoughts ahead of a first full pre-season training regime under the famously demanding Marcelo Bielsa.
Back at Thorp Arch six-and-a-half weeks after the play-off defeat to Derby County, Bamford revealed the toll the first few days back have on the body.
“The legs are heavy, very heavy. It’s always nice to be back, but it’s been difficult. All the same it’s been enjoyable I guess,” he said, speaking to LUTV.
“To be honest, the first day when we did the yo-yo test. I know that’s pretty standard for most clubs. But then more running followed and when you get back in bed after that first night, you realise “we’ve started again”.
The yo-yo test is a notoriously exhausting exercise that’s designed to evaluate an individual's aerobic endurance fitness.
In it, players complete regular 40 metre runs between cones, with 10-second breaks each time and the required speed increasing each time - continuing until the participant is no longer able to keep up.
“Last year I was at Middlesbrough with Pulis and he did it differently. We went running up mountains,” he continued.
“When I joined [Leeds] last year, I’d had five weeks of pre-season and did the yo-yo when I arrived. This year I did the yo-yo first day with no pre-season and I beat it this year, so different things work different ways.”
“If you see through a whole pre-season, then it stands you in good stead for the season and it’s hard if there’s injuries picked up and you don’t have a proper pre-season then I feel like you haven’t built the foundations properly to see you through.”
Bamford, a marquee signing from Middlesbrough last year, only joined the club in late July, missing out on the legendarily gruelling summer training regiment at Leeds.
He suffered a frustrating first season at United, which got off to a bad start as he suffered a serious knee ligament injury in the early weeks of the campaign, and was subsequently stunted by further problems, restricting him to just 25 appearances, which brought about 10 goals.
