January has been a good month; I’m back training fully and feeling stronger than I have for a long time. 

On the 3rd of January we flew out to South Africa for one week of intensive training and a three Nations tournament with Canada and South Africa.

The training camp was very hard work, unfortunately as it was my first week back training with the squad and playing hockey.  I wasn’t able to do all the sessions, but if I’m being honest I think that was a good call.  The team trained two to three times a day, including hockey, weights and hard speed endurance sessions.  I joined in when I could and by the end of the week was involved in all sessions.

After the week long camp we flew to Durban on the 12th Jan for the three Nations tournament.  We were scheduled to play South Africa and Canada twice each.  I was pencilled in to play one game, the final match v Canada. 

After a win against Canada and two draws with South Africa, we needed to win the last game to win the series.  I played around 20 mins and even scored a goal in a 4-1 win!  I’d love to say it was ‘Roy of the Rovers’ stuff, but to be honest it wasn’t.  They all count though, and I was just glad to be back playing.

After the trip from hell home, (25 hours of delay – Thank you BA!!) we have had three days at home followed by a training camp at Bisham Abbey.  I have managed to fit in a few days work during my time at home, but I have to thank Genesis and Alistair Gray in particular for being so understanding with the amount of time I’ve had off, especially this month.

We fly back down to Bisham tonight for three more days training and then the squad for the Olympic Qualifiers is picked on Saturday (2nd Feb).  I’m not overly confident about selection, as I realise I’m not quite as fit as I could be due to my injury, but with a month until we actually play in the Qualifier I think there’s still plenty time to get fit enough.  I just have to hope the coach has seen enough to want to pick me.

Matches in Jan.

GB 2 v 2 South Africa
GB 5 v 1 Canada
GB 1 v 1 South Africa
GB 4 v 1 Canada

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