Ritchie: Break has come at right time for United
MATT Ritchie feels the international break has come at a ‘good time’ for Newcastle United as the club look to secure their return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
The midfielder is on international duty with Scotland and believes the two-week break will benefit United.
He said: “In a way, maybe this is coming at a good time. We’ve had a lot of tough games recently, so it might be good to wind down a bit in training over the next few days and concentrate on recovering a bit.
“It’s tough when you play SaturdayTuesday all the time to get yourself back to peak fitness and condition. Making sure you’re ready to go again is tough, and you’re always going into games with little knocks or strains.
“It’s two weeks now until we play again, and that might help. There’s obviously a few of us that are going away for internationals, but we’ll still be trying to look after our bodies and get back to peak condition. Then we’ll go again for the run in.”
Ritchie didn’t feature in the first game of the week for Scotland, a 1-1 draw with Canada, but hopes to get selected by Gordon Strachan for the clash against Slovenia tomorrow.
He added: “I hope I’ll have a role to play (for Scotland). We’ve obviously got a lot of competition for places. But as always I’ll try to do my best.”