Key trio set to return for City
RODGERS EXCITED ABOUT ‘WORLD-CLASS FACILITY’
LEICESTER City’s “astonishing” new training ground will provide a vital immediate boost to the squad as they get set to make the £100 million facility their home.
City want to move into their new state-of-the-art base at Seagrave on Wednesday, December 9, council papers showed last week.
If given the green light, City will have the facilities to ensure they get through the busy festive period in tip-top condition.
Games have been coming thick and fast for City as they compete at home and in Europe, while injuries have been a feature throughout the Premier League, with the players pushed harder than ever before to squeeze in all of the fixtures following a late start to the campaign.
December is traditionally the busiest month in the football calendar, and today’s clash with Fulham marks the first of nine games in 29 days for City.
But at the new training ground, City will have world-class facilities to enable them to recover more effectively and, hopefully, prevent more injuries.
However, they still need Charnwood Borough Council to give them the go-ahead at a meeting of councillors on Thursday.
Planning permission was only given provided City funded improvements to the A46 junction near the 185-acre site, but the club wants to move in before those adjustments have been made, on the proviso that players, staff, and other employees approach the training ground from a different route.
Rodgers said: “I think the benefits to it straight away will be that we’ll go into a world-class facility that will allow us to recover even better.
“We go into Seagrave where there’ll be pools, hydropools, cryotherapy, there’s going to be everything there in order to recover.
“That will be brilliant for us in this period where the games will be coming thick and fast.
“When we go into it, it will increase the standard and the level of everything.
“That was a big attraction to coming here. Going to a worldclass training facility that allows you to develop and grow as a team.”
Long-term, Rodgers has previously said that Seagrave will help attract signings for City in the transfer windows, while he also believes it will help the club bridge the gap to the richer sides because it will help him develop each player.
The current squad are certainly looking forward to moving in.
“They’re very excited,” Rodgers said. “They haven’t been in recently but along the way they’ve dropped in to see the developments.
“I went in twice a fortnight ago and it had developed even in that period of time. It’s really going to be sensational to drive into work every day.
“The pitches, the analysis, the sports science, medicine, it’s going to be an amazing facility and when you get that chance to go there, you’ll be in awe of it.”