Startling details have emerged in the loaded pack of drills Manchester United’s new signing, Odion Jude Ighalo is currently going through, as he continues sweating out under the guidance of renowned working with performance coach Wayne Richardson, megasportsarena.com reports.
Rather than lie back and take time to rest, following his last-minute exclusion from The Red Devils’ list to their winter break camp in Marbella, Spain, Ighalo has stepped up his personal drills in the same gymnasium where Great Britain’s taekwondo team are holding their sessions.
The report out of Queensland revealed that Ighalo is so determined to hit the ground running at Old Trafford, such that he has been doing double sessions in Manchester all week alongside GB’s Olympic Taekwondo squad in his bid to be fit enough to get a starting spot in his first game with the club, against Chelsea on February 17 at Stamford Bridge.
With aspirations for a glorious debut in mind, Ighalo is regularly undergoing double sessions in his bid to make an instant impact at United; after the deadline-day signing on a season-long loan deal from Shanghai Shenhua of China arrived at Old Trafford for the start of the Premier League winter break but his return to England has been no holiday.
While the squad is now away on break, the 30-year-old Ighalo plunged straight into working personally with Richardson, who has previously worked with Mario Balotelli, and believes the 16-day break between games and United’s warm-weather training camp in Marbella will mean the new signing will be ready when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side return to action.
Ighalo’s agent, Ladi Salami, made contact with Richardson and they have worked through the week at the Team GB Taekwondo performance centre in Newton Heath, the birthplace of the club that became United, close to the doorstep of Manchester City’s Etihad Campus.
Sport shares the facility, so Ighalo has been rubbing shoulders with Britain’s Olympic stars like Jade Jones, while the Team GB athletes asked for selfies and, though the performance director, Gary Hall is a Liverpool fan, the joke is about United’s rivals sealing the EPL title.
From that point, it turned into a whirlwind week for Ighalo, as Salami arranged sessions with Richardson Sport after working on his move to Old Trafford, and part of their routine is to avoid eating out in crowded places, as they avoided the traditional football destinations of Wings or San Carlo, opting for Onje in Arndale Food Market for their Caribbean and African cuisine.
Richardson, who also works with the Nigerian duo of Sheyi Ojo and Tom Dele-Bashiru, has also helped to train Super Eagles’ fringe player, Isaac Success at Watford, while his relationship with Balotelli was struck when the Italy striker was moving back to AC Milan.
Considering that Ighalo had just started his pre-season in Shanghai before travelling to England the previous weekend, his work with Richardson has been more about assessing fitness and then prioritising areas to work on, while also undergoing football sessions involving ball work.
Richardson says that match fitness and dealing with contact will be the only part he cannot help with – the work Ighalo does with United’s staff will be key to that – ahead of a possible 13 English Premier League matches plus games in the English FA Cup and UEFA Europa League.
Consequently, before he formally commences training with the first-team squad next week, the former Prime FC of Osogbo, Julius Berger FC of Lagos, Lyn Oslo of Norway, Udinese of Italy, Granada of Spain, Watford of England and Changchun Yatai of China striker stepped up his drills early with a special fitness regime at the National Taekwondo Centre in Newton Heath, taking part in a session on Tuesday which saw him undergo a number of different exercises.
Richardson expatiated: “Good week so far with Ighalo. Working behind the scenes. We were in on Thursday night until 10.30pm after also doing a session this morning. On Friday he went in for a massage and a recovery session. We’ve done testing.
“We’ve done endurance work, strength and conditioning, flexibility, mobility. There were sprint tests over five, 10, 15, 20 metres, one rep max, isometric pulls, and mid-thigh pulls to see where he is. From there we can give him endurance work, running box to box, change of direction, change of speed. Ankle, knee and hip movements look at his sprinting.
“(We are looking at) what he can do off the ball, analysis with that is fed back to the player. In China they’ve basically just started their pre-season so he was possibly two weeks into that but lost two or three days with travelling and time difference. A key factor has been acclimatising.
“There is an element of fatigue and we’ve been monitoring him to give him enough recovery time. Core strength which will be important in terms of dealing with the rigours of the Premier League and the big hitters because it will be quicker and faster compared to being out in China where the levels are completely different.
“(He’s) a fantastic Athlete, but the hard work begins. If we didn’t have this break we would have been raising eyebrows. Some people come in and just do the training but this guy has embraced it all and hopefully we have prepared him the best we can. He is very softly spoken and humble.
“He knows the weight of the shirt on his shoulders but at the same time has that determination to succeed. Everything you give him in training he does, it’s not a problem. He knows he has to hit the ground running. From the moment he has stepped through the door, he is one of the few players who has blown me away. His determination, drive and willingness. He’s been doing double sessions and we’ve had to hold him back a bit, because he has fire in his stomach.
“United are in a position now where they need someone now. Is there a right time or wrong time? He might have to hit the ground running due to injuries. We have to prepare him in the best way we can. We’ve monitored him and put him on the GPS. We get the reports and feed them back. He’s got something as near as possible to what he would get at a professional club.”
On his part, while throwing more light on his thoughts, Ighalo told manutd.com: ”My ambition is to work hard with the team and make sure we finish well in the season and above where we are today. I saw the table and I know Man United is a big team, they are there at the top and now things are not going the way they should go. So my aim to contribute my own quarter to the team and make sure we finish good in the position.“
