Liverpool's James Milner has won club's brutal lactate test ever year

James Milner and the rest of the Liverpool squad have returned to pre-season today (Monday 4th July) as they prepare for the 2022/23 season.

We’ve singled out Milner because he’s the king of Liverpool’s pre-season. The veteran doesn’t drink alcohol and keeps himself in brilliant shape throughout the summer.

The 36-year-old has signed a new one-year contract at the club that will keep him at Anfield for the duration of the upcoming campaign.

But despite his age, Milner will be the man to beat once again in pre-season. We recently brought you his running stats from pre-season last year and how he ran 8.5km in 34 minutes!

But he’s also the notorious lactate test every year that he’s been at Liverpool.

The test measures a player’s aerobic endurance as they’re tasked to run increasing distances at speed. At the end of each checkpoint, a sample of blood is taken from each player’s ear to measure their lactic acid level. If they level is too high, they have to drop out. Last man standing wins.

In 2019, Joe Gomez pushed Milner to the end but he was no match for the midfielder.

Final lap of the gruelling lactate test