The Scotsman

No lethargy at Rangers thanks to medics and sports science team

- By ANGUS WRIGHT

Steven Davis praised the sports science team at Rangers for ensuring there was no lockdown lethargy among the players.

Celtic were crowned Premiershi­p champions for the ninth time in a row in May after the campaign was cut short in March due to the coronaviru­s crisis.

Steven Gerrard’s side must now try to prevent their Glasgow rivals winning a recordbrea­king tenth successive title while also aiming to bring a cup or two back to Ibrox.

Davis was impressed with the fitness programmes handed out by head of performanc­e Jordan Milsom and his staff before the squad all reported back for pre-season training.

“Straight from the off the sports science team gave us individual programmes to try to keep ourselves ticking over,” Davis told the Rangers website. “To begin with, we weren’t sure what was going to happen with the league, and then once the decision was made on that, they updated the programmes every couple of weeks to keep us fresh and as prepared as much as possible.

“We are very fortunate that we have a great medical team and a great sports science team headed up by Jordan. We have all the informatio­n we need to try and get us in the best possible shape, and in terms of recovery as well with the number of games that we have to play, and hopefully if we are going to be successful, we will have a lot of games to contend with. So it is important to try to do as much as possible to get yourself firstly in the best physical shape and then secondly, in-terms of recovery and nutrition as well.”

Rangers will face Olympique Lyonnais and Nice this week in the Veolia Trophy pre-season tournament in Lyon.

It will be the first time Davis will have returned to the ground since Euro 2016 when Gareth Mcauley scored the opening goal for Northern Ireland in a 2-0 win against Ukraine. He said: “It was a great day for us after the disappoint­ment of the first game (0-1 Poland) where we didn’t really feel we put in a performanc­e that showed our real qualities.

“To then go to Lyon and to beat Ukraine let us qualify for the next stage of the competitio­n, so great memories from there.”

 ??  ?? 0 Steven Davis: Return to Lyon will bring back great memories.
0 Steven Davis: Return to Lyon will bring back great memories.

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