Darren Moore reveals planned date for start of pre-season training for Doncaster Rovers

It is expected that confirmation of a September 12 start date for the 2020/21 season will come in the next week or so.

And Moore is targeting an intensive six week pre-season training plan to ensure his players are in good condition after what will have been a six month break from action due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I’m hoping for us to come back into training and maybe officially start on August 3,” he told the Free Press.

“That is what we’re hoping to achieve barring any more spikes.

“I’m hoping to get them back in on August 3 to get them going, get them started and up and running.

“That is always pending that we don’t get any more hiccups along the way.

“There’s a level they’ve got to reach to make sure their bodies are in tune to certain things. “These are the things as a manager you have to take into consideration, when are we going to start back, what about the recruitment of new players coming in.

“There’s a whole new rebuilding process and a lot of it is completely different to what anyone has experienced before.”

Moore admits he is still unsure how closely this coming pre-season will resemble those of previous years given the impact of the pandemic and the restrictions which have followed.

And he says there may not be the opportunity for official friendly matches in the build-up to the start of the next campaign.

“It’s difficult because Championship and Premier League clubs are still playing and they’re going to want to do things their own way with the short time they’ll have between seasons,” he said.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to play the non-league teams as we normally do.

“A lot of conversations about these sorts of things are still in the pipeline and we need to find out about them quickly.”

*

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Nancy Fielder, editor