Doncaster RLFC: Gary Thornton begins pre-season plans

Thornton is looking to add to his backroom team by bringing in a new strength and conditioning specialist to work with long-serving Pete Bell.

Thornton is also planning to run a series injury prevention clinics prior to the players reporting back for pre-season training in the middle of next month.

“The idea is that the club’s physio will discuss some of the injuries we picked up last season and put some procedures in place which hopefully will help improve the situation,” he told The Star.

“It’s about educating the players and about making some of them a bit more professional when it comes to pre-match routines and doing their rehab following injuries.

“Although you always hope that the players do their own fitness programme during the time between the end of the season and the start of pre-season training you never really know what they do and it can be a shock to the system when they hit the ground running.

“So what we are doing by involving Karl is that we are taking it out of their hands and making sure that they are all ready for the rigours of pre-season and therefore reducing the risk of picking up a pre-season injury.”

The club have yet to finalise their pre-season friendlies but are likely to entertain Challenge Cup holders Hull FC again as part of their dual-contract arrangement.

“We want a tough programme and ideally I’d like to play against another Super League club and either a Championship side or another League One team,” said Thornton.