A Steve Bruce international break training ground ritual that has players on their “hands and knees” has been revealed by one of his former players.
Newcastle boss Bruce saw his players sign off for the fortnight with a fine win over Bournemouth and the non-internationals have been granted a long weekend off to rest after recent exertions.
But former player Alan Hutton – who was part of the group with the Magpies boss at Villa Park – said Bruce will have made the players “work” before granting them their time off.
“I remember retiring from Scotland and thinking ‘I’ve got days off here’ and I was buzzing. I think we got the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday off and then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday was an absolute running club,” Hutton told 5Live.
“I couldn’t believe it. I was like ‘Oh no, this isn’t for me’. I couldn’t believe it. I’m playing week in and week out and I thought ‘We’ll get a week off here surely?’ No, running club.
“The manager was Steve Bruce. He would have believed in working us hard so we earned the days off. The last day you’d come in before the long weekend off was a Thursday and it would be a 45-minute running session.
“He would say to you ‘Look, you’re going to be on your hands and knees here but you’ll get your days off’ and it was every line on the pitch and back. Six-yard line back, half-way line back... it was a nightmare!
“You knew when he took the session you’d be on your knees.”
Bruce is an advocate of hard training ground sessions, and worked on bringing the United players’ fitness levels up in his three weeks of pre-season with running and cardio sessions.
