Preston North End reporting for pre-season training this morning with one new face so far

It is the part that most players dread as the first few days back will be incredibly intense, in part to test whereabouts the players are in terms of their fitness.

Gone are the days where players could relax during the summer break and build things up again when they return, instead they are often seen doing extra work whilst on their summer holidays.

Ryan Ledson, Brad Potts and Sean Maguire were amongst those posting on their Instagram of their exploits in Dubai and in Spain respectively.

It has been a big summer for the latter, who recently got married in Spain, with former PNE defender Paul Huntington one of the attendees.

Ledson and Ben Whiteman have spent some time down at North End’s training base for the academy, and the former home of the first team, Springfields.

There will only be one new face amongst those reporting to Euxton this morning, that of Freddie Woodman.

The 25-year-old signed a three-year-deal with PNE on Tuesday, and will be the only senior goalkeeper at the club for now.

U19s ‘keeper James Pradic will likely be the man to share the gloves with Woodman early into pre-season, as North End arrange to sign another stopper.

Woodman, who joined from Newcastle United for an undisclosed fee, is the replacement for player of the year Daniel Iversen who returned to his parent club Leicester City at the end of last season.

For goalkeeping coach Mike Pollitt it will hoopefully be a case of more of the same this season.

Speaking to the PNE website, he said: “Everyone knows how well Daniel did and Freddie’s probably looking at that and thinking he wants to emulate that.

“With Iversen going back to Leicester, Declan Rudd retiring, Connor Ripley and Mathew Hudson leaving as well, it’s been no secret that we’ve been on the lookout for new goalkeepers.

“I’ve been getting little messages on Twitter saying that I’ll be stood there on my own on the first day of pre-season with no goalkeepers so it’s a relief we’ve finally managed to get Freddie in.

“We need to strengthen in that area a bit more, hopefully we can do that over the next week or two.”