CHRIS LAKEY Norwich City players return to training his week - and Peter Grant is keeping it strictly in-house.The City boss says he has no intention of turning the clock back to the days when City players ran up and down the hills of Mousehold Heath in the Ron Saunders regime.

CHRIS LAKEY

Norwich City players return to training his week - and Peter Grant is keeping it strictly in-house.

The City boss says he has no intention of turning the clock back to the days when City players ran up and down the hills of Mousehold Heath in the Ron Saunders regime.

"I think those days are gone," said Grant. "The fitness work is very much appropriate, but as I used to say I don't see any sand dunes on a football pitch.

"I think it is very important that you can still do the amount of work, probably work even harder than you did in those days, but a different type of work. There is still the same heart rates they can put in, they still have the same energy they can put in, still the same fitness levels will be achieved."

Instead of slogging through miles and miles of running, City players, after three days of tests and assessments, will move on to the lush, manicured fields of the Colney training centre - with a football.

"I like to do a hell of a lot with the ball, but in that work it is very, very intense and very hard," Grant added.

"The players will know that, but I think it is easier running with the ball than somebody telling you to run three or four miles down a beach. I know sometimes people like to do that, but I think there are places for that and times for that, but not in the modern day game when it is about the mental side of it as well as the fitness side of it."

Only one current player will be missing tomorrow, with midfielder Youssef Safri given an extra week to recover after international duty with Morocco.

"That will be us kicking on right up to August 11, that is what we are all preparing for," said Grant.

"Hopefully we can keep clear of injuries and that is the ultimate aim, to make sure everybody is fit for August 11.

"Saff will get an extra week because of the international - that is part of the process when they are playing as late as he did, but hopefully we will have other boys coming in and they will be ready to start right away and everybody will be fit and raring to go.

"We have to make sure we don't get any injuries - we know what last season was like with injuries and we are trying to make sure we have challengers in each position as much as we possibly can."