Wolves captain Jody Craddock has thanked fitness coach Tony Daley for ensuring he has come back to pre-season training in top condition.

Turning 34 next month and as the oldest player in the squad, it doesn’t get any easier for Craddock to compete with Mick McCarthy’s young and hungry brigade.

But thanks to Daley, who designed individually tailored ‘maintenance’ programmes for all the players, Craddock returned to the grind of pre-season today in a positive frame of mind.

The player said: “The older I get I think the pre-seasons start to blur into one! When I was younger I was probably more nervous about it, but not anymore.

“I’ve stuck to the programme which Tony has given me but, as you get older, I think you can only run as fast as you can run or as far as you can run.

“It’s about listening to your body. The only person I can race against is myself, I’m not worried about how fit the next person is, but just that I’m up to the level I need to be at.

“I know what’s involved with being a centre-half. It’s a different sort of fitness to being maybe a central midfielder or a right winger.”

Craddock acknowledges going into the Premier League will be a step up in class and Daley’s input will be crucial.

The skipper said: “We’re going into the Premier League where the standard is so much better, so we all know we’ve got to be as fit as we possibly can.

“It’s great we’ve got so much confidence in Tony Daley. He got it right for us last year and will do it again this year – he’s a fantastic fitness coach.”

Craddock admits the preparation these days is a far cry from when he first started out as a professional at Cambridge.

He said: “I remember at the start of my career there were people who came back at Cambridge a stone overweight and, as bad as it sounds, it was actually funny at the time.”