Hull’s Hodgson runs the rule over everyone ... except Shaul
BRETT Hodgson has had the chance to see all but one Hull FC player on the training field this week.
The Black and Whites returned to action on Monday morning for the first day of pre-season as they begin preparations for the 2021 campaign.
They’ll have just nine weeks to be ready for the new season, which gets underway on March 11 and as a result the head coach will be keen to make the most of every pre-season moment as he gets started in his new role.
Most of the work up to this point has been conditioning based as Hodgson allows head of high performance Paul Hatton to put his players through their paces in the opening days.
Players were expected to return to training in reasonably good condition after following their off-season training regimes and their fitness has been put to the test over the first few days of 2021.
It is believed fitness will continue to be the main focus at the club’s County Road training ground for another few weeks before Hodgson takes more of a technical and tactical approach.
Jamie Shaul is the only man who hasn’t been involved so far. The fullback had surgery in November on the ACL injury he picked up in the win over Castleford Tigers a month previous.
As such, he has been working on his rehabilitation with the club physios for a number of weeks and the Mail understands he is making good progress.
Hodgson knows Shaul well having worked with the 28-year-old as a youngster and he’ll be keeping a keen eye on his progress over the next few months in the hope he could make a return before the end of the campaign.
In the meantime Jake Connor is expected to be the club’s first-choice full-back and ensuring he is comfortable in that role will be a priority for Hodgson before the season starts.
Hodgson was reunited with Josh Reynolds yesterday morning, too. Reynolds arrived in the country on Tuesday and met up with his new team-mates for the very first time.
The half-back arrives having spent time training with his former club Wests Tigers before the move to Hull was announced and while the medical and conditioning staff will be monitoring the new signing closely, he should be relatively up to speed.