Gabby Agbonlahor gives honest assessment about pre-season training at Aston Villa

Former Aston Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor has been reliving some of his pre-season training experiences at Aston Villa, describing them as ‘traumatic’.

Premier League players will be returning to their clubs in the coming weeks to report for pre-season training ahead of the new season, which will include pre-season friendlies and tours abroad.

Former Villa forward and pundit Agbonlahor has revealed he wasn’t exactly a fan of pre-season.

He told talkSPORT: “Pre-season was traumatic. I dreaded it because I knew I was coming back and it would be just running, blisters and more running.

“You’d run in the morning session then have lunch. The older you get; you stiffen up and then you start at 2pm and run again. When you’ve stiffened up in recovery mode, you’ve got to run again. Your body is just in pain.

“I dreaded pre-season, honestly. We were like marathon runners by the end. I hated it – hated it. You go away and sometimes the conditions are so hot and very dangerous. I remember Hong Kong and it was so hot and humid. It was dangerous. You had to change your top every 20 minutes because it was soaking. You were losing a lot of water.

“One person was sick. Ross McCormack threw up on Nathan Baker. He was sick on him while running.”