Brendan Rodgers has told his Celtic players to expect a “punishing schedule” over the next fortnight as he looks to build a level of base fitness that will allow them to reach their goals this season.
Rodgers has already been working with a core group at Lennoxtown over the last week but has been joined by some of the squad’s biggest international stars for today’s trip to a training camp based in Portugal.
With the rising temperature comes an increase in intensity and work. The new Celtic boss is intending to test everyone over the next period.
He said [Celtic TV]: “I think the next block of two weeks will be a punishing schedule with the heat but we need to get our work in and that’s what pre-season is for.
“We want to play attacking, aggressive football and in order to do that you obviously need to be technically very good but you also need to be very fit. So building up that base over the course of this pre-season is very important.
“The point I made to the players is it starts on day one. When you’re looking to reclaim the winning mentality you have to come back from the very first day and give everything. That’s what the players have done so far.”
Celtic play two training ground matches against Portimonense over the next six days – on Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning – before another double-header in Japan the following week.
There have been suggestions in the press that a trip to Dublin could be on the cards to face Wolves too, in lieu of the cancelled South Korea trip, but that has yet to be confirmed by either party.
What’s clear is that this is a critical period for players trying to impress their new manager and a lot will be decided before a ball is kicked competitively against Ross County in less than a month’s time.
In other news, Jota sends heartfelt farewell video to Celtic support on Instagram.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
