Revived Genge is raring to go

ELLIS Genge spent a rare summer off fishing and intends to make a ‘turbot’ charged start to the coming campaign after missing out on England’s summer tour to New Zealand because of a calf injury sustained in Bristol’s final match of the season.

- PAUL REES

Genge will start his third season back in his home city after a stint with Leicester but injuries have restricted him to 20 appearances for the Bears and he is looking to make up for lost time when their Premiership programme starts at Newcastle next month.

“It has been nice to take some time to fine tune different parts of the body,” said the 29-year-old prop. “I have tried to get into better physical shape. Pre-season is the time for crafting your body for what is to come, but I am very aware as soon as we start playing games and knocking ourselves about a bit, I am going to have to find a different way of doing things.

“It is not so easy getting under a bar in the gym after 80 minutes away at Newcastle so I will cross that bridge when we come to it.

“You can’t tell too much from pre-season – everyone thinks they are the best team in the world during it. It is the first time I have had one for a long, long time so it has been a bit different, and very long at 14 weeks: I was injured so have been in longer. I do not envy those who do it every year.

“Being injured is a drag. Everyone says put a positive spin on it, but it is tough. You want to be active and playing. I watched the boys in the first four months of pre-season and saw England on the television and it was hard. Playing is the easy bit and it has been very different for me this summer.