United club and team captain Paul Thirlwell spoke to the Official site shortly after the first session had been completed on his return for pre-season training.

He said: "It is good to get the break but it's also good to be back.

"It's usually the same for everyone, once you get to the back end of June you just want to get into work and get on with it again.

"The lads are looking fit and well and everyone is ready to go. We'll be doing some ball work for the next few days and we'll get on with a bit of running to make sure that we're all ready for the hard work that I'm sure will start for us all next week.

"I don't think anyone is a fan of the running and things that we have to do over the next few weeks, but we know that it's necessary so we all knuckle down and get on with it.

"We've got some good pre-season games coming up, with the Newcastle one obviously standing out a bit. We played them a couple of seasons ago and gave a good account of ourselves, and we'll be looking to do the same again. These games aren't about results, but you still want to go out there and hopefully get the win to put everyone in the right frame of mind.

"Obviously it's all about building up for Brentford, and I think that's a good one for us. We had the same opening fixture last season and we don't want to feel the disappointment of the result that we had back then, so we'll be working towards getting a better result this time round.

"We had a good season last year, and we want to progress and improve on that this time round, and that's where all of the focus is going at the moment."

United Player subscribers can see a video interview with Paul Thirlwell later today.