City are bracing themselves for the first proper pre-season session on the training pitch on Thursday.

The squad, including summer signings Simon Ramsden, Gareth Evans and Jonathan Bateson as well as Zesh Rehman, came back into work on Wednesday for fitness check-ups.

Having been given programmes to work with since the end of last season, McCall expected his players to return in decent shape.

Talking to the Telegraph & Argus McCall said: "We're not killing them. The sooner we can get them into kicking the balls the better but you can only do that if they've got a reasonable level of fitness.

"In my day you'd spend the first week to ten days of pre-season just running - but those were the days when you went away in the summer, did nothing and put a stone on.

"Now, with the progressive level of fitness that they were given in the programme, nobody should come back more than a couple of pounds over at most."

The only player missing will be striker Peter Thorne, who has an agreement to return on Monday.