Cyrus Christie says he and the rest of Derby County’s returning international stars were thrown straight into the deep end in a bid to catch up with the rest of the squad in terms of fitness.

The 23-year-old full back returned, alongside fellow Irish Rams Jeff Hendrick, Richard Keogh and Chris Baird, to the Training Centre in partnership with the University of Derby yesterday following an extended break as a result of their involvement in this summer’s UEFA European Championships.

That’s not to say that Christie has not been keeping a keen eye on the hard work that Nigel Pearson, the Derby manager, has had the rest of the squad doing since they returned for pre-season training earlier this month.

He got a taste of that on Thursday and is now looking forward to potentially returning to match action this weekend when Derby head to Walsall in their latest pre-season friendly.

He told dcfc.co.uk: “It’s good to be back. It was a tough first day and you could say we were thrown in at the deep end.





“All four of us who were returning were fine with that because we didn’t lose too much fitness in the time that we were off so it is about building the fitness back up.





“We had a second session too just to get us up to speed and we are looking forward to the game on Saturday already.





“I have been keeping a close eye on the work that the rest of the boys have been putting in and they are looking really fit and really sharp.





“I saw a couple of the videos and myself and Jeff Hendrick said to each other that the sessions that the gaffer has got them doing looked tough!





“We are back into that now and we’re playing a little bit of catch up when it comes to the running that the rest of the guys have been putting in.”

Despite having an extended break, Christie insists he and the rest of the returning international Rams have come back in good shape, with plenty of work being put in during their time off to ensure that was the case.

He added: “We were training every day whilst we were away in France and after that, we all got two and a half weeks off before returning here to Derby.





“After a short break away, though, we have been working to make sure that we keep in shape and come back fit.





“We have all kept ourselves in good nick, knowing that we had to keep sharp for when we come back into it.”

Christie also says he received a ‘big boost’ from Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill ahead of the 2016/17 season.

The full back was named in the final Euro 2016 squad following an impressive qualifying campaign, but did not feature in any of the Green Army’s four games as they reached the last-16 of the competition, before being knocked out by hosts France.

With O’Neill’s words behind him, Christie is also looking to build on his own personal impressive campaign.

“It was great for me personally to be involved in a qualifying campaign and the experience of just being there at the Euros was just fantastic,” he said.





“I didn’t quite manage to get some game time, but the manager did speak to me about that and he mentioned that he couldn’t get me in the team at that time.





“He has told me to look forward to the World Cup qualifying campaign and that was a big boost for me going into that campaign as well as ahead of the upcoming season with Derby.





“I felt I had a great season last year and I just want to build on that this time around.”





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