With pre-season back underway it is a busy time at Cobham, and for none more so than fitness coach Glen Driscoll, who has been explaining the club's training regimes.
The players not on World Cup duty reported at 9am on Monday for their first day back at work, though they had been expected to be keeping in shape while enjoying their holidays, and after a series of medical tests it was out onto the field to get going.
'It starts from off-season when the players have their programs. They came in early on Monday and split into three groups where they were assessed by the medical department,' Driscoll explains.
'They go out and do the yo-yo test, which is like the bleep test, but we don't do the one that goes on until they drop, it is just to get an idea of the levels they hit in six minutes and from there we gauge how they are doing aerobically. Afterwards they will do power tests and then we're pretty much straight into the football.'
The trips of the early '80s to Aberystwyth where the local sand dunes provided a suitably gruelling regime are now consigned to history, certainly at Chelsea anyway, where our staff prefer to use footballs as early as possible in their work.
'We don't run these days, I am sure other clubs still do, but here we get them straight back into the football,' Driscoll says.
'It is more specific, and we can understand that you can get fit by the football. We have a lot of detail and planning gone into every session for the whole of pre-season.
'That came from towards the end of last season, from about March we started to meet with Carlo and all the science team, and we could tell you now including Carlo's tactical sessions, how it all adds up and gives the players their strength and aerobic qualities they will need for the season.'
That is certainly a great deal of planning, but do things get harder with the staggered return of our World Cup players?
'We have a whole group of players coming back later, which is a challenge we have,' he says, 'but having done last season with Carlo it helps to make it easier and not being on a long tour gives us a lot more control.'
With August 8 the date of our first competitive fixture, there is a month before our backroom staff know if their hard work has paid off, but having helped secure the Double last time around, there is every confidence the same can be delivered.
The players not on World Cup duty reported at 9am on Monday for their first day back at work, though they had been expected to be keeping in shape while enjoying their holidays, and after a series of medical tests it was out onto the field to get going.
'It starts from off-season when the players have their programs. They came in early on Monday and split into three groups where they were assessed by the medical department,' Driscoll explains.
'They go out and do the yo-yo test, which is like the bleep test, but we don't do the one that goes on until they drop, it is just to get an idea of the levels they hit in six minutes and from there we gauge how they are doing aerobically. Afterwards they will do power tests and then we're pretty much straight into the football.'
The trips of the early '80s to Aberystwyth where the local sand dunes provided a suitably gruelling regime are now consigned to history, certainly at Chelsea anyway, where our staff prefer to use footballs as early as possible in their work.
'We don't run these days, I am sure other clubs still do, but here we get them straight back into the football,' Driscoll says.
'It is more specific, and we can understand that you can get fit by the football. We have a lot of detail and planning gone into every session for the whole of pre-season.
'That came from towards the end of last season, from about March we started to meet with Carlo and all the science team, and we could tell you now including Carlo's tactical sessions, how it all adds up and gives the players their strength and aerobic qualities they will need for the season.'
That is certainly a great deal of planning, but do things get harder with the staggered return of our World Cup players?
'We have a whole group of players coming back later, which is a challenge we have,' he says, 'but having done last season with Carlo it helps to make it easier and not being on a long tour gives us a lot more control.'
With August 8 the date of our first competitive fixture, there is a month before our backroom staff know if their hard work has paid off, but having helped secure the Double last time around, there is every confidence the same can be delivered.
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