West Ham United’s Rush Green Training Ground was abuzz as members of the first-team squad return for pre-season testing on Sunday.
Senior players who were not involved in international football in June were back in their kit and being scanned and screened by head of medical services Richard Collinge and his staff.
Those present underwent electrocardiogram and echocardiogram tests to check on the health of their hearts, had their height, weight and body fat measured and sat down at a computer to take a Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT) test.
The players also had their range of motion in their joints and flexibility of their muscles tested before joining the sports science team to set their data benchmarks for the season ahead and ending their first day back ended with a 1km time trial.
Club photographer Jimmy Griffiths on hand to snap the return of the likes of Michail Antonio, Saïd Benrahma, Aaron Cresswell, Craig Dawson, Łukasz Fabiański, Manuel Lanzini and Kurt Zouma, as well as the arrival of new first-team assistant coach Mark Warburton, ahead of what promises to be an exciting, challenging and busy 2022/23 campaign.
The squad will travel to Scotland on Monday for a five-day training camp in St Andrews – the same venue manager David Moyes has taken his squad in both 2020 and 2021 – before heading to France for a week-long camp in Évian-les-Bains and the opening pre-season match at Swiss Super League club Servette on Friday 8 July.
The Irons’ current senior internationals will return in early July, as manager Moyes and his staff have given those players a welcome break to refresh and recharge body and mind for a season that will see West Ham compete in four competitions for the second year in a row.
Last season’s UEFA Europa League semi-finalists and seventh-place Premier League finishers will participate in the Premier League, Emirates FA Cup, Carabao Cup and, for the first time, UEFA Europa Conference League, with the two-legged play-off round in the latter taking place on 18 and 25 August.
For West Ham’s full pre-season schedule, click here.
