Troy Parrott made it to the end of a gruelling Tottenham training session in South Korea as his teammates collapsed all over the place.
After two hours of training in the Seoul World Cup Stadium in high temperatures and humidity, in which the Tottenham stars were put through various drills, match situations and two-touch and multi-touch matches, Antonio Conte unleashed his renowned pre-season nightmare on the players - 42 pitch-long runs, with very few brief stops, to see who lasted the distance at the end of their third training session in just over 24 hours.
Conte had already lost Dejan Kulusevski to what looked like a precaution with a small calf problem earlier in the evening before the match sessions, but he had players dropping like flies as fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone put them through their paces in what has become a renowned Conte method for getting his players super fit over the years, reports football.london.
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The target was 42 pitch-long runs at the end of the two-hour session for the players who came back earlier in pre-season and 30 for the international stars who returned just before the flight to Korea.
Harry Kane, who only returned on Saturday morning for the flight from Heathrow, was one of the first to collapse, falling to the edge of the pitch and requiring a cold towel on the back of neck, and a member of Spurs' medical staff came over to check on him before he later returned to the runs to complete his set. Soon after Son Heung-min also fell to the floor in some discomfort and brought a hush to the 6,000 fans inside the stadium.
Kane went over to check on him and eventually the South Korea captain got to his feet and also returned to the running to a cheer from the crowd. Others joined them in dropping to the floor, including new boy Yves Bissouma, until eventually only a core of super-fit players, who had been training longer in pre-season, remained to complete their 42 runs.
Davinson Sanchez, Bryan Gill and newcomer Pape Matar Sarr were among the fittest and led many of the later runs by a distance, but it was Parrott who led the group back in the 42nd and final run of the night.
That was entirely fitting because just hours earlier, at a Tottenham Hotspur Global football development session with young adults from ChildFund Korea, Parrott had told football.london when asked how gruelling Conte's sessions were: "It depends who you ask. I'm quite a good runner naturally, but yeah it's been tough. It's been hard work but it's all preparation."
Conte's pre-season training sessions are the stuff of legend in Italy. In Juventus' recent Amazon All or Nothing documentary series, after seeing his players tired following one session, then boss Andrea Pirlo could be heard to tell his coaches: "Can you imagine what they would say if they were here in Conte's day? They'd be dead."
Also in Conte's session with his Spurs players on Monday, he was involved in the centre of an 11 vs 11 match, working on shape. He could be seen telling Matt Doherty to move the ball quicker out from the back and spent a time after that game talking to new goalkeeper Fraser Forster and was motioning a kicking motion with his foot, perhaps delivering a similar message about the speed he wants the ball to be moved out of defence.
New boy Richarlison netted a couple of goals in the two training matches, spending some time in a three with Lucas Moura and Gil, who struggled in front of goal with a number of wayward efforts but otherwise looked bright on the right, for the first two-touch match, before the new Brazilian switched sides to partner up with Kane and Son for the second game.
The teams for the first two-touch match, in 3-4-3 formations, with had just one goal and a line to cross at the other end, were: Yellow bibs: Forster; Tanganga, Fagan-Walcott, Davies; Doherty, Hojbjerg, Bissouma, White; Parrott, Kane, Son. Orange bibs: Romero, Dier, Sanchez; Emerson, Bentancur, Skipp, Sessegnon; Gil, Richarlison, Moura.
Teenagers Charlie Sayers and Sarr were on the sidelines before Sarr replaced White and later Sayers joined the back three for the second match. Summer signing Ivan Perisic watched on as he is yet to return to ball work following his knee injury on the final day of last season.
Conte worked his players hard throughout and they walked off the pitch in bits to take part in a signing session with 120 Korean fans. Before he left the stadium, a clearly shattered but smiling Son walked along the edge of the stands to wave goodbye to the supporters who had watched on.
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