Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka should both start in our friendly at Blackpool tomorrow (3pm KO - Sold Out) both are fit and raring to go.
Bainesy has told how he a Jags were last to return to pre-season training following their England duty at Euro 2012 and how they helped each other keep fit.
Bainesy said: 'When your football has continued on past the end of the season, it's important that you get at least three or four weeks where you can rest and switch off, both physically and mentally. Then you come back ready to go.'
'I only took a week off to be honest. I figured it wouldn't be that long before I was back so I might as well stay in decent shape.'
'You do that in the hope of avoiding injury more than anything. You get put through your paces when you come back in pre-season and there's a lot of stress put on your body. If you let yourself go too far, that's where you're going to get niggles and start missing important sessions.'
'If you keep yourself up to scratch physically, you can get the full benefit when you start the season.'
'Once the England games started, the ones that played didn't train. But the rest of the squad, you sit around and do all the eating before the game and then you haven't played, so you have to work it off and then continue training to keep your levels up.'
'Jags is a good running partner for me. We both have slightly different strengths when it comes to types of running, so there'll be times where I pull him along a bit and others where I'm trying to hang onto him.'
'It's a good partnership for both of us.'
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