Michael Dawson revealed that he’s fully prepared for pre-season after recovering from a hamstring injury. The Nottingham Forest defender hasn’t played since December 2018, but he was back in training for the last few weeks of the season and should be 100% for the 2019/20 campaign.
He said in a recent interview for nottinghamforest.co.uk: “I trained for the last two or three weeks which was great for the confidence and knowing that my hamstring was right. Knowing that the summer was coming up I could train for two or three weeks, have the (break) then come back in pre-season like everyone else.
“I have been in a couple of times during the summer to check everything is fine but I knew that it was. It was never going to be a problem and I am prepared for that first day of pre-season.” After featuring just once in the Championship between August and September, Dawson went on to make 13 appearances in all competitions last season.
His final outing for the Reds came against Ipswich Town on December 1. Despite returning in May, Martin O’Neill opted against selecting Dawson because he didn’t want the player to suffer a setback in his recovery like he did earlier in the season. Forest weren’t short of centre-backs, so the 35-year-old was afforded the time to work on his fitness to return next season.
Dawson’s future could be in doubt at the City Ground, however, with O’Neill having Tobias Figueiredo, Michael Hefele, Yohan Benalouane, Joe Worrall and Alexander Milosevic at his disposal. The former England international might have a difficult task to get in ahead of the other centre-backs, so it’s vital that he proves his worth in pre-season.
