ANOTHER week has passed, and truth be told I am still very much adapting to life away from football and the training ground.

Having a routine at the training ground is one of the biggest things that I am missing right now – so I thought I would give you an insight into a typical day, using today (Tuesday) as an example, at Staplewood Campus. Then later in the week comparing life at the training ground to what a day at home during these unprecedented times looks like.

08:30 – I always like getting in early, mainly because you miss all the rush hour traffic! It’s either me or Gunny in first - we take it in turns!

09:00-9:30 – 9.30 is the deadline to be in – if you’re late, then expect a fine from our legal representatives, Ward-Prowse and Armstrong! Most of the boys are in early anyway and we start to filter upstairs to the canteen for some breakfast. I’ll grab a coffee and an omelette to get me going for the day ahead.

10:00-10:30 – Once breakfast is done, we’ll all head back downstairs (with our coffees!) and normally have a team meeting at around 10:15. This tends to take place in our Auditorium, the same room where you’ll see the manager having his press conferences. The length of each team meeting varies – we often analyse past performances and then look at our opposition for the weekend. 

10:30-11:00 – Pre-activation is key for any footballer and athlete. So, this is where we will head to the gym around 30 minutes before training and go through several exercises just to get our muscle groups active and moving. Sometimes we may even have a short pilates/yoga session, as again this can be very effective in helping prevent injury when training shortly after.

11:00-13:00 – Training time! So, us goalkeepers will always head out first with Sparkesy (goalkeeping coach) and train separately from the rest of the team for the first half-hour or so. This is mainly so we can practise different drills as a group that Sparkesy has organised. There will be some catching and reflex exercises mainly, just to get us nice and warmed up.

We will then go over and join the rest of the boys for the second part of training. It could be practising set-pieces as a team, shooting drills and then a match scenario at the end which would focus a lot on our shape.

Also, you may have seen in training videos and photos, but we also wear tracking vests to help monitor our performance. We all get assigned a vest, which will be hanging up on our pegs before training – the sports science team will then collect our results and sit down with us individually to go through all the important details they’ve collated.

13.00-14:00 – As soon as training is done, we will head upstairs to the canteen for some lunch. We have a great team of staff who work in the kitchen, they help cater for every single member of the squad. They will know every player’s dietary requirements and whether they have any food allergies. My favourite lunchtime dish tends to be some couscous and roasted vegetables!

14:00-14:30 – After grabbing some food, we will have allocated gym slots where we are split into groups. I tend to use this session to do some upper body work, but at the same time making sure I don’t overdo it, following training. 

14:30-15:30 – As it’s a Tuesday, normally that would mean its media day! Each player will be selected every week to preview the upcoming game at the weekend, by speaking to broadcaster rights holders such as Sky Sports and Premier League Productions, as well as local radio and the Daily Echo! This will normally all be done at the training ground, in and around the Markus Liebherr Pavilion. 

If I haven’t been selected for media that week, then we may have a partnership activity to take part in. Some of our partners will visit the training ground to shoot some promotional videos, which normally involves a fair few of the boys. These can vary in time, as some may take most of the afternoon to film, so sometimes we need to have our best acting skills at the ready!

Of course, every training, pre-activation and gym session is different, but that’s just a little insight into what takes place on a daily basis at Staplewood.

I’ll be back on Friday to give you guys a run through my new and contrasting routine at home, during these surreal times.

Macca