Oli turned pal Grealish into top-four hunk
JACK GREALISH was turned into a ”beast of a player” capable of playing for any top-four club – and Steve Bruce has revealed how it happened.
The Newcastle boss will do battle with former club Aston Villa tomorrow night knowing the inside story of how Grealish toughened up and became physically capable of running games in the top flight.
When he was Villa boss, Bruce was trying to get the best out of the England hopeful, who has since helped fire Villa into the Premier League.
A worrying kidney injury had forced Grealish into a long lay-off – so Bruce appointed Grealish’s close mate, Oli Stevenson, in the role of Villa’s strength and conditioning coach.
Stevenson, whose own career was hampered by illness, put Grealish through months of rehab, and sent him back into the first team as a player transformed – one who hasn’t looked back since.
Bruce says of Grealish: “He is the crown jewel at Aston Villa and he never wanted to leave.
“It would be difficult for anyone to buy him with the size of contract he has got.
“He could play for any team, Manchester United,
Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal
… any team. I rate him that highly.”
Bruce, who narrowly missed taking Villa back to the Premier
League in 2018 amid a time of financial worry for the club, said: “I’d love to say it was all me getting Jack playing so well but it wasn’t.
“He just wants to play football – he’s an absolute football nut. Of course he’s young and he’s a goodlooking kid and all the rest of that.
“That will be written about – but what he wants is to play.
“When I was at Villa he got a horrible injury in pre-season where he damaged a kidney badly and was in the hospital for three weeks. Then he came out and missed four or five months.
“So we employed his mate,
Oli Stevenson, from the academy. He grew up with Jack, and he had qualified as the strength and conditioning coach in the gym.
“That lad, Oli, single-handedly for me, changed Jack in the gym, with what he worked on.
“Jack came out after six months and, physique-wise, we looked at him and went, ‘Oh my god’.
“He’s a beast now, a terrific player.” Grealish, 24, has four goals this season, two in the league, and played 35 games during Villa’s promotion campaign last season.
Bruce expects Ciaran Clark to be fit tomorrow after suffering an injury playing for the Republic of Ireland in the week. And he has backed £20m Miguel Almiron (above), without a goal since joining last January, to spark the attack.
Bruce said: “Miguel got two in three games on international duty for Paraguay. It will happen for us too.
“He is a threat and his running stats – I have never seen anything like it for intensity of sprinting. I’m confident he’ll score soon.”