PRESEASON TRAINING: A PRACTICE that still strikes fear into the most conscientious of professional footballers. It arrives in early July and all too soon, when the muscles are still screaming for the sun-lounger on the beach and when the prospect of ten-mile slogs on mountainous routes doesn’t bear thinking about.

Forget it; time has moved on. Scaling the peaks in the bleak countryside and sweating out the excesses of the summer on horrendous hikes have long gone. Football science has progressed, players are, mainly, responsible and only the lazy or foolish allow themselves to balloon out of shape in the close season.

Jon Fearn, Reading’s head of sports medicine, has seen it all in ten years in the sport, the first four as physiotherapist to the West Ham United team of Harry Redknapp. He has listened to the moans, heard the excuses and spotted the skivers. Nowadays, though, his preseason routine is much more player friendly.

“Sure, there might be a couple of runs in the first few days back,” Fearn said. “But they’re not incredibly hard and certainly not ten miles. They’re just enough to test the players and tell us where they are in their conditioning and levels of fitness.

“We then split them into groups so we can target their training more specifically over the first ten days. If they need more strength work or more work on agility, power or flexibility, they get it. Over the years, the managers have realised that you don’t need the long runs. In fact, you used to get a lot of injuries because of that sort of work. Players always enjoy it more with a ball at their feet instead of having to run up and down hills.”

Fearn, 37, has barely had a break during the summer because he has had to return to the training ground at Hogwood Park to supervise the rehabilitation of eight Reading players who are suffering from long-term injuries. The rigours of a first season in the top flight, when the club finished eighth in the Barclays Premiership, took its toll.

“It was a tough season physically,” Fearn said. “The demands on power, strength and speed are far greater than in the Championship. Everybody’s bodies were battered and bruised by the end. But the lads have come back in pretty good shape.

“There’s always a few of whom you think: ‘You had a great opportunity to do something and it’s a shame you’ve not taken it’. We tell them that. They need to know — you’ve got to be up-front with them — but we can only do so much. Fitness comes from within.”

On Friday, as the intensity of training stepped up a notch, Shane Long, the Ireland striker, was carried from the pitch with a twisted ankle. He limped out of Hogwood wearing a protective cast but should be fit to travel with the Reading squad tonight, when they fly to South Korea — in business-class seats, naturally — for the Peace Cup.

A round trip of 11,000 miles awaits them, plus the heat and humidity of Seoul, the Korean capital, and three matches, possibly four if they reach the final. “Jet lag can wipe you out for a while,” Fearn said. “But there are a lot more positives than negatives, otherwise we wouldn’t be going.

“It gives us time to screen the players more closely and sort out niggly things that we don’t have time to do at home. Players often slope off after training but, over there, they’ll be at our disposal 24 hours a day. There’s less distractions and we can dictate what we’re doing.”

On their return, Fearn and his ten-strong team of physios, masseurs, doctors, sports scientists and nutritionists will increase the tempo for the players. “We’ll step up the sessions,” he said. “We grade them from one to five and, instead of doing a few twos or threes, it’ll go up to the fours and fives. By the start of the season, we should be firing on all cylinders.”

ADVICE FOR AMATEURS

John Fearn, head of sports medicine at Reading, gives six tips for preseason:

1. You’ve done nothing for six weeks so make sure you progress gradually. Start with 15-20 minutes of running at a steady pace. Break into striding out for three minutes, three minutes’ rest, and repeat six times.

2. If you’ve had any niggles, aches or pains, rehabilitate. Don’t ignore your injuries.

3. Hydration before you train. Weigh yourself before and after sessions and drink the difference . . . and not in lager. For every one kilo you lose, take 1½ litres of fluid.

4. Dab surgical spirit on areas that might blister; this will dry out the skin and toughen it. After walking for weeks in flip-flops or trainers, why are you surprised at blisters the size of 10p pieces on you heels when you play in your boots?

5. Don’t drink too much alcohol, maintain a balanced diet and eat within an hour of exercising to replenish your glucose levels.

6. Cool down with a jog or a stretch in the sun, when your body is warm and pliable.