July return date for Rotherham United

ROTHERHAM United's first team squad report back for pre-season training next week and intend making good use of the extra time at their disposal.

ROTHERHAM United's first team squad report back for pre-season training next week and intend making good use of the extra time at their disposal.

The players are due back on Wednesday, July 1 and will then have two blocks of work, separated by a week off, with the aim of hitting their peak ready for the start of the delayed 2020/21 Championship campaign.

“We are led to believe the new season will start at the end of August or the start of September,” said manager Paul Warne.

“We want to come back for three weeks, have a week off and then do the next four or five weeks.

“A lot of the Championship teams are going to be playing until the end of July so they will be match ready to go again by the end of August. They won't have long off at all, whereas we won't have kicked a ball in anger for a long time so we want to get our lads back and just be steady-away really because we don't want to take any unnecessary injury risks.”

As reported in the Advertiser last week, Warne expects to bring in around eight new players ready for the return to the second tier.  

He added: “We have an opportunity now to watch a lot of games, try and recruit the right people and it gives us a bit more time if we're lucky enough to bring the right people in soon and get them used to the way we play and train.”

The club publishes its retained list this week, with decisions to be made on out-of-contract goalkeepers Lewis Price and Laurence Bilboe, defender Billy Jones and winger Julien Lamy.

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