Lewis Cox in Austria: Ryan Mason West Brom buy in, inside track and fitness update

Express & Star

Jonny Drury catches up with Lewis Cox in Austria for all the latest from West Brom's pre-season training camp. Albion are preparing to take on Dynamo Kyiv on Friday - and Lewis had access to Ryan Mason's training session on Wednesday. He gives an insight into the session, and interviews with head of medical Tony Strudwick and goalkeeper Josh Griffiths.

Transcript

00:00baggies fans welcome back to express and start.com my name is johnny dreary i'm dialed in with lewis

00:13cox from austria as he remains at the albion pre-season training camp to bring you the latest

00:22from inside the baggies camp coxie how's it going um contrary to reports on social media you haven't

00:29shrunk in the wash um i confirm he's the same size um busy 24 hours since we last spoke fill us in

00:37some people watching this who are none the wiser about that who are blessed not to be involved in

00:43the twitter sphere uh will be thinking what on earth's johnny going on about lewis has always

00:49been small i don't know when i logged on to this video sitting on my balcony this morning i said

00:53the first thing i said to johnny who had been giving me some stick don't worry i'm sitting down you know

00:58you can't see how small i am in a nutshell my esteemed media colleagues mr steve herman from

01:05bbc radio wm who is also out here posted to social media yesterday evening uh a picture of me

01:12interviewing josh griffiths albion's goalkeeper uh as we had the opportunity to see after afternoon

01:17training yesterday uh josh griffiths is very tall isn't he johnny he's uh he's a good six five i would

01:24say it's all for a young lad i am uh not six or five but you know i'm slightly below average let's

01:32you know let's not do me totally down um steve's um steve's photo was not flattering on my part was

01:40it johnny as you have um publicly and privately told me um yeah steve essentially to get josh and i

01:50in shot yeah we interviewed each other quite close pressed the zoom out button on his camera the 0.5

01:54thing on the iphone which distorts angles like crazy obviously it just sounds like a total excuse

01:59on my partner but it has like it's up here and me like here uh it's uh it's a photo for the ages i think

02:09and one that i won't um escape from for a while but yeah that aside johnny um blue skies behind me as

02:15you can see the old flag fluttering in the in the uh in the wind much better conditions than when we

02:21arrived a couple of days ago and the players will be glad for that because i think i've had sort of

02:25comments from players and staff about how oh it's kind of been perfect here you know the facility is

02:31really really good um everything's really good it's just a shame for the rain they had really

02:36because torrential rain for a day does make the pitches boggy you know there's a 4g here that they

02:41haven't been playing on really but there's a couple of pitches and i know one got pretty waterlogged

02:47certainly in the wide areas so um and in the wake of that we we were watching them train which i'll

02:52get into yesterday on on a different pitch and uh watching them do these sort of small sided rondos

02:58keep ball thing and after you know five ten minutes of that the grass really churns because of it because

03:03it's soaked but um yeah conditions are much better as you can see and it's nice to be able to walk

03:08around in t-shirt and shorts john as you are back home so i hear certainly does look good yeah it is

03:15warm here um coxie you spoke yesterday i said they were josh griffish also spoke with albion's head of

03:22medical tony strudwick um someone who is kind of probably the last man in the club from the the kind

03:30of steve bruce kind of area he's still around albion um just to listen on that and uh and what he spoke

03:36about you know what you got out of josh griffish head of what is looks set to be his kind of first

03:42full season as albion number one yeah so you're right about tony uh certainly in terms of staff

03:47isn't he he's uh he's a long long-term sort of backing staff member now he referenced how it was

03:52i think he saw on his linkedin yesterday it was his third anniversary of the club going into his fourth

03:56season i remember around the time i started this um this gig being told now this is a serious

04:03acquisition for the club to get someone like tony and in this role obviously previously of

04:07manchester united where he worked in the fergie era and obviously helped them win everything and

04:12he was a massive part of that set up the class of 92 so i've got a lot of respect for tony strudwick

04:17and his work really and obviously you know had a chance to speak with him privately quite a lot but

04:23it was only the second time i think i've interviewed him first time for a couple of years and it's very

04:27detailed in what he says and it gives you real insight you know but obviously you know myself

04:32and steve speaking to him the couple of questions really on everyone's lips when it comes to medical

04:37and fitness of albion and the two existing snipers obviously not talking about uh owner hegeber

04:43um in dowel dk and josh magic now we know all about their fitness injury record unfortunately um

04:50both i'm happy to report are in a similar place they're they're coming back from slightly you know

04:57they're coming back from different injuries different periods of absences and they're at a

05:01slightly slightly different stage in that look at dk was able to play on the final game of last season

05:06wasn't he and sign off with a goal and what a magical moment that was for everyone involved not least the

05:10likes of strudwick and his medical team having said that yes dk was able to play but look you know how

05:17long was he out periods of of years with those terrible injuries josh madger obviously hasn't played

05:22since the start of january wasn't used at the back end of last season and he's still

05:27like dk the term from tony was integration look they've completed kind of their rehab

05:32scheduled programs meticulously designed for each player but for those players specifically in the

05:38summer uh it's got them josh madger in particular i've wrote about this morning on our website he

05:42worked extremely hard individually in the closed season and with staff to get him to the point now

05:47where he can train with a team now when we watched we had the chance i said yesterday johnny to watch

05:52team training and as i wrote afterwards fascinating absolutely brilliant to watch ryan mason

05:56and authorities to commanding you know clarity in his training brilliant josh madger and david k were

06:03involved uh yesterday which was wednesday madger did the sessions the day before on the tuesday so

06:09it's not it's no alarm that he wasn't involved yesterday obviously they're building it up he's

06:13integrating in team training just not at the stage yet where they're out here doing double sessions

06:17where he can do every day you know and i suppose we'll find out as we speak here thursday morning

06:22tomorrow's the friendly against dina milky um and i guess we'll find out closer to them whether

06:27madger or dk will be involved i i don't really know about that whether they'll be on the bench or not

06:32really risk it doesn't feel like it makes much sense sense to me sorry but um yeah yeah madger

06:38so in and out of full team training and that's a real real boost isn't it and there was no sort of

06:43doubt when i was asking about certainly madger's availability for the start of the season

06:47and there's no doubt that tony should that he'll be there ready so that's a that's a massive boost

06:51obviously and um and dk's sort of further ahead of that isn't he like say he played on the final

06:57game of last year we know historically really that daryl dk's training schedule is is tailored isn't it

07:03because of his his record and stuff so yeah in in in a pretty good place i'm happy to report those

07:10pair and they're massive players probably not they with hegeber you know that's that's a that's a serious

07:14trio who look like they all know how to score goals where the goal is so fingers crossed on that

07:18and um yeah josh griffiths who made me look very small yesterday i will be uh i'll be writing up um

07:25wrote out his quotes yesterday i'll be writing up his feature later today as you rightly touched on

07:29johnny and i said this to him you know josh griffiths is close to albion number one

07:34now as as he's ever been isn't he in fact you know as we speak he we we don't know this for

07:40definite but the the educated guesses and the way last even finished he is in essence albion number

07:45one isn't he and for a for a you know boyhood kid who's been at the club since he was 10 the whole

07:50journey the loans he's been on johnny um it feels like he's merited it he's he's worked it he's earned

07:57it he's still very young you know just 23 and uh what a prospect he is so yeah looking forward to

08:02bringing you that i wrote a tamabani feature this morning um really enjoyed from our interview i hope

08:08hope people enjoy reading that and um yeah what what we're speaking with alex moment today

08:13interviews coming out of our ears honestly it's uh it's a real privilege um and watching training

08:18yesterday you couldn't really we don't get to watch training too often but couldn't really have

08:22been more impressed with ryan mason if you tried to be honest he really came across so well and uh to

08:29me i think i could i could give no more sort of compliments to me that it it looked like he had

08:34the buy-in of every single of the 28 players that were involved in that session yesterday they were

08:41all sort of listening hanging off his every word so to me that bodes well

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