'We have to look out for players' - insists Derry City boss Declan Devine

The Brandywell boss was delighted to see his players all training together in one group session yesterday, the first for a number of months, but stressed the intensity levels will only gradually increase in the coming days and weeks.

Indeed, Devine re-emphasised the health and wellbeing of his squad remains of paramount importance during as a potential restart nears.

“While we are well into our training, we still have to look out for the players,” insisted the Derry boss.

“No football for three and half months is unprecedented, so we have to be careful.

“You only have to look at the Premier League in England and the number of players getting muscle injuries or the many players who are struggling a bit. In fact, when you see one of the fittest men in the Premier League on Sunday, James Milner, coming off with a hamstring problem after a few minutes, that says it all.

“So from our point of view we have to be careful. We are easing our way into training but, at the same time, the boys are doing a lot of work. With that workload though, we have to make sure we aren’t just flogging them for the sake of it.

“We were only given permission late on Friday night to get back into full groups, so today (Monday) is the first time as such that we had everybody together on one pitch.

“We had been working with 13 players and one coach but today we were able to open it up a bit, so that’s another positive.”

With the FAI expected to announce soon that the League of Ireland season will get underway again on Friday July 31st, Devine wants to make sure his players are ready for the off and he has also one eye on August 27th’s UEFA Europa League qualifier.

“At the minute everything is good. We have no issues, we just have to get our heads down and get as fit as we can,” he added.

“We have to make sure that we are in peak condition for not just when the league whenever we get a start date, but also our Europa League tie, because it’s probably going to be the highest grossing game that Derry have ever played in.

“We have to make sure that we hit the ground running whenever the league gets underway.”

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