Leicester City squad keen for pre-season return despite 'most difficult' campaign

The Leicester City squad were ready to return for training ahead of the new campaign, winger Marc Albrighton has said, even though last season’s heavy schedule left the players desperate for a holiday.

Albrighton was among the first batch of senior City players to return to the club’s Seagrave base for the start of pre-season training on Monday. The squad are back in June, rather than July, with the Premier League campaign starting a week earlier than usual this coming season.

It ends a period of five weeks off for the players, and Albrighton says the break was much-needed after the strain of last term. The club played 58 games in total, with the season taking in seven overseas European trips.

Albrighton told LCFC TV: “Last season I would say was the most difficult of my career in terms of the amount of games, amount of travelling, and time away from family. It was well needed to get away with the wife and kids for a bit.

“If you ask a lot of the squad, there comes a time when you’re ready to come back in. I was ready to come back in and starting working again.

“There were conversations I’ve not had for a few weeks. It’s always nice to get away from Jamie Vardy at the end of the season! But it’s always good to see him again when you come back.”

Only Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel have been longer servants at City of the current first-team squad than Albrighton, with the 32-year-old now entering his ninth season at the club. And being one of the older members of the squad brings worries as pre-season begins, the title-winner keen not to be shown up by the younger players.

He need not have worried about being thrown in the deep end for the first day of pre-season though. Runs up and down the hills of Bradgate Park or