NEIL McDonald has underlined the importance of players in the modern game adopting a 24/7 fitness attitude ahead of pre-season.

The new Swindon Town assistant manager, who was revealed as Phil Brown’s number two late last month, reckons 99 per cent of players return from the summer break ready to be worked.

Taking time out during the summer months to work on developed fitness programme is the first step towards establishing a positive pre-season, believes the new County Ground number two.

He added: “Players now are 24/7, they really look after themselves.

“It’s not like the old days when I used to play.

“The players have a couple of weeks of rest and then it’s active all the way through. They’ve got a programme to carry out.

“I would say 99 out of 100 come back and they’re flying. It’s good to be able to work with them straight away.

“The work will be hard. This will be the first pre-season under the new manager.

“They will be ready and raring to go wanting to impress everyone so they’re in with a shout for the first game of the season.

“We’ll find out the fixtures soon (Thursday) which is an exciting time for everyone.”

Meanwhile McDonald is looking forward to linking up with staff at the County Ground when he makes his first visit to Swindon since accepting the assistant manager role.

It’s a new challenge for the 52 year old, whose last assistant manager's role was at League One Scunthorpe after leaving League of Ireland outfit Limerick in early January.

He said: “I’m looking forward to coming down and meeting all the staff as well as seeing the training facility and the ground itself.

“The boys are on holiday and deserve to have a rest, but at the same time they will be working away trying to get their fitness levels to a mark where we can get stuck into them and push them on.

“Phil will be looking forward to coming back I’m sure, I certainly am.

“I haven’t come down yet with Phil (Brown) being away, and there’s still a bit of time before we start training on the 25th (June).

“Right now it’s important that I touch base with people the manager has asked me to talk to – that’s agents and stuff like that.

“It’s mainly phone calls for me at the moment, but I’m looking forward to coming down and advancing from there.”