Blues full-back Conor Townsend says he’s over the hamstring injury which ended his 2024/25 campaign and is expecting to be fully fit for the start of pre-season training later this week.
Townsend initially picked up the injury in the Wolves match on April 5th and aggravated it again in the Chelsea game a week later, which proved to be his final outing of the season, which meant he was unavailable when first-choice left-back Leif Davis was suspended following his red card against Arsenal.
The 32-year-old, who joined the Blues for £750,000 from West Brom a year ago, says he’s been in and out of the club during the close season and should be ready to join in as the squad’s preparations for 2025/26 get under way later in the week.
"I’ve been in over the summer sporadically just to make sure that it’s fine,” he told TWTD. "It feels sweet. I’m hoping to be fully fit for the start of pre-season on Thursday and hopefully I won’t have any more issues with it.”
Asked whether he’s a fan of pre-season, the Hull-born defender reflected: "Pre-season is what it is. It’s different to what it was when I first started football. At 18, you’re coming back and there are first-team lads who have obviously been on the all-inclusive all summer and come back overweight and they use it to get fit.
"But now, it’s not like that. Everyone comes back ready, everyone comes back fit and if you’re not you end up getting left behind.”
Fans keeping an eye on social media will have seen some players taking part in private fitness sessions over the summer.
"I haven’t this season, I have in previous years,” Townsend continued. "It’s quite a normal thing now for lads to go away, they can do their work on holiday. They go on holiday and get work in abroad with specialists.
"It’s always nice to do a session with someone else as well, doing running on your own can be a bit boring, a bit tiring. It’s quite normal. I know a lot of our lads are in Majorca at the minute on a camp, doing some special training out there.
"It just shows how the game has gone and how everyone comes back and everyone’s pretty fit.”
The players who have been away on international duty this month, including Omari Hutchinson, whose 2024/25 only ended on Saturday when he helped the England U21s to win the Euros in Slovakia, have been given additional time away.