Salomon Rondon admits he loved the 'special fights' he had against Newcastle United captain Jamaal Lascelles in training because it made him 'better in the games'.
The Venezuela international spent last season on loan at St James' Park and became the first forward since Alan Shearer to win the club's player of the year award after being directly involved in 40 per cent of the Magpies' goals in 2018-19.
As Newcastle's lone front man, Rondon was tasked with holding the ball up and holding off defenders - and that was not just on match day.
Matt Ritchie, another ferocious competitor in training, noted how Rondon would 'want to pin people' and how the No 9 and Lascelles 'would be going at each other' every day in training games. That memory still makes Rondon smile today.
"Normally, I played against Jamaal because Jamaal was the biggest centre-back in the team so that's the kind of centre-back you play against in the Premier League," the Dalian Professional striker told ChronicleLive.
"Of course, all the time, when the ball was coming, against Federico [Fernandez] and Fabian Schar as well, I tried to do my best in training.
"For me, in my opinion, when you're training like that, you will be the same in the games. The special fights against Jamaal in training made me better in the games so this was very important for me.
"To be honest, I loved that because that meant the team wanted to do the proper things in the games - and we did."
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