Crystal Palace players return to the grass pitches of Copers Cope Road after a 10-week absence today, but it will be a session like no other before it.
Indeed, there are three sessions during the afternoon, in what will be an extraordinary – but welcome – change to recent routines for the players.
Across the afternoon in three allotted time slots, 25 players will arrive in full training kit at Kent Cricket’s Beckenham site (adjacent to the club’s base).
The club has acquired the use of Kent Cricket’s facility next door as the car park is considerably larger – affording the players and staff a safe passage onto, and exit from, the club’s pitches – in a specially designed flow system, that would not have been possible at the Eagles’ usual training base.