and exclusive photos from the Dons training camp

As the Dons prepare to head back to Aberdeen after a pre-season training camp at the University of Warwick, manager Derek McInnes has been reflecting on a week where he, his staff and the players have laid the foundations for what will hopefully be a much improved season to come.

“The week at the University of Warwick has been very good for us, a really worthwhile trip. The facilities there are excellent. I’ve been there in the past, I knew the environment we’d be working in very well and it’s tailor made for what we wanted to achieve. They have looked after us really well and the players can have no complaints on that score.

“The big thing is that we’ve come through it all without any injuries. The only wee issue has been Andy Considine. He came down with us but it was always touch and go if he would be able to do all the work given the length of time he’s been out.

“His Achilles has flared up a little bit so we took him out of the last couple of sessions, just to let it settle down. The kind of boy he is, he’s probably attacked the work with a real will and determination to push himself and that says a lot about Andy’s character, but we just wanted to make sure he didn’t do too much.”

A week away without a game is a new experience for many, and while the ball has been out on plenty of occasions during some high intensity sessions, the main focus of the week has been on fine tuning the physique before the attention turns to matters of technique and tactics in the coming weeks.

“A lot of the boys haven’t been on a training camp like this before, ordinarily they go away in pre-season and play some games as well as doing some training. But we wanted to get the hard physical work done first and we wanted to get them away from Aberdeen to bring home the point that this week is all about them.

“We take them away from their families, we get them to make that sacrifice and we’ve been asking them to think about themselves this week, to concentrate on their fitness and on what we’re going to be asking from them this season while they have no other distractions.

“We’ve put them through a considerable amount of work, trained at a very high intensity a lot of the time and we’ve made real demands on them. We only had a couple of days back at Pittodrie before we came down to Warwick, then we were straight into it. Looking through the sessions that we’ve done, analysing the data and just looking at how the boys have attacked it, I’m very pleased.

“They have applied themselves brilliantly and we’ll come home after a week feeling fitter and stronger – and a bit more tired as well! But that’s what pre-season is. This part of it is getting a level of work in the bank that will stand the players in good stead not just now, but come next February and March.

“I have to say the boys have really bought into what we’re trying to do. There’s been no moaning or groaning – or if there has, they’ve been pretty discreet about it!”

RedImages | Pre-Season training

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