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You mentioned the mental aspect, often players who have been out a long time say the mental challenge is more than the physical. Did you find that? And does it give you even more motivation when you do come back?

Yeah, of course. Just to go on the field every day is hard, in a way, because obviously you see your teammates play every day, every weekend and you want to be there, you feel like you should be there. And you want to get that feeling of playing again, but you’re just not capable of. It’s really hard. Not being able to train regularly with the team, alone in the gym sometimes; it’s really tough but, like I said, it only makes you stronger.

More positively, you’ve had a couple of appearances under your belt so far this pre-season. How is the body and the fitness and the rhythm feeling for you?

Good, good. Obviously after a long time it’s difficult to get into the rhythm I had before, but that’s what pre-season is about. I’m slowly getting my rhythm back and hopefully it will be better in the next few weeks.

It’s a new head coach and a new start for everybody – what has Arne Slot said to you about how he sees your role?

At the moment, obviously I need to first get my fitness back to where it was and get to my level and my rhythm. At the moment, it’s just trying to learn the system and the style of play that he wants. And every time I get the opportunity, just take it and work hard.

How intense is this period, because it’s about building up your fitness levels but you’re also taking in a lot of information from Arne and the coaches as well?

Yeah but we were ready for that; with a new manager it was always going to be a different system and different things, so we were ready for it. Physically, it has been quite hard, to be honest, multiple sessions. But that will only make us better at the end, so it’s good.