78
(^) Daily Mail, Thursday, August 8, 2019
78 PREMIER LEAGUE
T
HE Premier League
returns tomorrow
but preparations
for the big kick-off
started long ago. It
raises the question: how
does a top-flight footballer
get ready for action?
To find out, Sportsmail shadowed
Everton and England defender
Michael Keane from when he
returned to work to the last warm-
up fixture. He provided a candid
insight into how he has brought
himself to a peak thanks to —
among other things — spin classes,
science and white-water rafting...
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10
FINCH FARM, LIVERPOOL
Keane missed the first week of
Everton’s camp because he had
played international football in
June. It meant he did not go on
the two-day trip to Kenya,
where his team-mates played
Kariobangi Sharks in Nairobi.
I Had three-and-a-half weeks off
after the Nations League. For the
first two weeks, I did absolutely
nothing. I don’t put on weight
HOW DOES IT DIFFER WITH
OTHER MANAGERS?
WHEN I came here in 2017,
Ronald Koeman had the VO2 max
test. You run on a treadmill wear-
ing an oxygen mask and the speed
keeps increasing until you can’t
run any more. I had a little injury
when I first came, so I escaped!
Now that is something I would
have dreaded.
Saying that, I know what Sean
dyche does. He has something
called ‘Gaffer day’. You are out for
up to three hours, there are no
footballs and you just run. and I
mean run. He’s got all sorts of
drills, one called ‘doggies’ that is
essentially a five-man relay. It gets
so hard people want to be sick...
dyche made sure the banter was
flowing, to push you through. I was
never sick myself but it was pretty
close at times! Under Marco Silva,
95 per cent of the session is with a
football. don’t get me wrong, it’s
still hard, but it is so much more
enjoyable.
TUESDAY, JULY 16
VERBIER, SWITZERLAND
The next phase of Everton’s
preparation involves a week at
altitude in the Alps. Some new
signings — Andre Gomes and
Fabian Delph — have now joined
the group and Keane has had his
first game minutes of the
summer, in a 0-0 draw with Sion.
TO GET to where we train from
our hotel, you need to take a cable
car — it certainly brightens up the
morning compared to the M56 and
easily, so there’s nothing for me to
dread about coming back. There
will be times I have the odd takea-
way. The ultimate treat is a Chinese
and it has to be sweet chilli chicken.
I like a cake, too... I do like a des-
sert, to be fair! But I like keeping
active and there comes a point in
the close season when you pick
things up slowly.
I was in Los angeles at first. To
get back into it, I did some different
things. There is a place called Soul
Cycle, which does spinning classes.
I also went to a few boxing classes,
stuff to get you going. It’s quite
hilly there, so you can’t go blasting
out runs. after La, I went to
Mykonos with my brother, Will, and
George Boyd, who I played with at
Burnley. There is a special gym
called Mykonos Performance and
we trained every day for a week —
running, bikes, hill sprints, gym
work, the lot.
WHAT HAPPENS ON THE
FIRST DAY BACK?
TESTS! The strength of your
hamstrings, the strength of your
groin. You do different exercises
and all the numbers come up on
machines in the gym. The medical
staff compare what they see to
where you were at the end of the
season and where you were on the
first day of last pre-season.
You do everything — stretching,
eye tests, blood tests, heart scans.
They go through everything to
make sure it is all as it should be.
It’s a full morning, going from
station to station when you get
prodded and poked and checked.
This summer we
shadowed Everton’s
MICHAEL KEANE,
who reveals all about
spinning, science and
white-water rafting...
TOP-FLIGHT PLAYER
REALLY
LIKE FOR A
WHAT PRE-SEASON’S
EXCLUSIVE
by Dominic
King
Every little Alps: Michael Keane in Verbier GETTY IMAGES
Suited up: (from
left) Maarten
Stekelenburg, coach
Duncan Ferguson,
Jonas Lossl, Gylfi
Sigurdsson and
Keane ready for
white-water rafting
GETTY IMAGES
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