Bristol Rovers

Jermaine Easter was amongst the Rovers squad who began pre-season training today after recovering from the injury which ruled him out of the club’s successful promotion run-in last April.

The Wales international has been working hard with the medical team over the summer in order to begin preparations for the new League Two season with his team mates, and whilst he is not “100% there” just yet, he is feeling good about his fitness.

“I’m doing all the running and all the difficult stuff, but it’s good; we all need it and it’s good to be back.

“For the first time I haven’t really had a summer - I was in twice a week with the physio for the whole of June, but I needed to do it. I wanted to come back and be fit and raring to go.”

Whilst Easter was thrilled the team got promoted at Wembley 6 weeks ago, he admits it was difficult for him suffering injuries after first signing for the club. Despite that, though, he now has his eyes set firmly on the coming season and making it another enjoyable one for the club.

“It was a terrible 4 or 5 months for me, but that’s in the past now. I am looking forward to playing a big part this year.

“[League Two] is difficult, but last year was difficult. Only two teams went up - fortunately we were one of them. There’s four teams this year and hopefully we can be one of them again.

“Obviously most teams, when they go up, want to consolidate, but we’ve got a good group of players here and we can kick on again. I don’t want to get people’s ambitions too high but I’m being realistic. I’ve played in this league before and with the lads I see in that dressing room - and I’m sure the gaffer will add to it - we’ve got enough to challenge at least.

Easter does not believe the step up in difference will be too noticeable and he is confident that visiting established Football League clubs will be a good thing for the players.

“I don’t think it’s a lot different from the Conference other than to going to better stadiums and better pitches, and that’ll suit us I think.”