Slaven Bilic says how long it will take for West Brom squad to be back up to speed
Slaven Bilic has hailed West Brom head of performance Nick Davies for the fitness programme he has handed to players who are in lockdown.
West Brom players haven’t been able to train together in over a month with players having their own fitness regimes to stick to while they’re at home.
Bilic is a huge fan of the programmes that Davies has put together and reckons that once they are able to do group training together again, it could be up to three weeks before they’ll be ready to play in matches.
“It’s an unprecedented situation, it’s never happened before,” said Bilic, as quoted by the Express & Star.
“That’s why we have opted for a ‘maintaining’ programme, just stay in good shape, don’t add any weight and do your stuff.
“Nick’s training is brilliant, it’s interesting, it’s not boring.
“If we stay fit-ish, then we’d need two-and-a-half to three weeks to be back in good form to play games.
“That’s what I told the players – stay fit, but the most important thing in that is not to gain any weight.
“Then you can play after two weeks of training together.”
Bilic is a realist and he knows how difficult it will be for his players to keep themselves at peak fitness when they’re stuck at home.
They’re only allowed out to exercise once a day and their lifestyles are a lot more sedentary than they usually are.
Not putting on weight must be a difficult thing to do but Albion are second in the Championship because they have a group of extremely determined professionals.
In other West Brom news, Kevin Phillips has said how The Hawthorns could be expanded.