Wolves fit as fiddles - McCarthy

Mick McCarthy claims his Wolves players have returned to pre-season as the fittest group of footballers he has ever seen.

The Molineux boss admitted his squad were “leggy” as they lost their opening friendly at Wrexham on Saturday.

But that was probably because they had been training so hard for two weeks.

He said: “Pre-season has gone really well. They still get the same little niggles but they have come back fitter than I have ever seen any group of players come back, That has improved over the years.

“Our fitness coach Tony Daley has been excellent. He has organised all the fitness regime. Myself and Terry Connor have been doing the football side to fit in with that.

“It’s gone great and the game on Saturday was beneficial, because you see all the things that were wrong.

“The players have trained hard – they were in the gym Friday morning and did a training session. So it really is going fine, I’m delighted with it.”

Only Matt Murray (knee) and minor ankle victims Sam Vokes and Karl Henry have suffered knocks.

McCarthy believes the summer programmes the players were given – and their own common sense – has prevailed.

He added: “They were all given a programme to follow during the close season and they have done it and they look great.”