After almost a week back in training and with some pre-season fixtures to look forward to ahead of the August 11 Barclays Premier League opener at West Ham, mcfc.co.uk caught up with skipper Richard Dunne for a chat.

"Obviously certain players dread a pre-season training session more than others, so with Saturday's friendly against Doncaster now in sight, Richard said:

"The best way to get fit is by playing games, they say, and obviously you need your base fitness to start off with.

"By the time we play Doncaster we'll have had 10 days of hard pre-season training and from the game onwards, future training will probably be all about sprinting and getting sharp.

"For everyone who's come back, I think they're really looking forward to Saturday, to get the games underway and being able to play football again."

Following on quickly from Saturday's fixture at the Keepmoat Stadium is a two-game tour of Sweden and a chance for Manager Sven-Goran Eriksson to show his new side his homeland.

So has Richard previously paid a visit there during one of his many pre-seasons or international away trips?

"I've been to Scandinavia before, but not Sweden, I remember it was really expensive though!

"But I think it's a good thing for everyone to get away. Especially with a lot of new staff members and maybe by the time we go, or while we're there, be joined by a couple of new players.

"So it'll be nice just to have a week where we're all together and build a good atmosphere amongst ourselves."

With games against Örgryte IS and Carlstad United making it three games in a seven days, Dunne knows it'll be a tough week away.

He added: "We've got another two games over there, so it'll be an interesting week.

"We all know it's going to be a hard working one, but we also want to be able to getting along with each other, whether that's being together for a meal or not I don't know yet. It just adds something different when we're together 24 hours a day."

The Sweden trip will no doubt cause plenty of excitement amongst the country's people with the return home of a Mr Eriksson, but Dunne admits that it goes with the territory and the players are happy to get on with the job in hand.

"That's what you get when you have a high-profile Manager - he takes all the spotlight off the players," the captain stated.

"There are no 'superstars' in our team and we're quite happy to get along with what we do and leave the Manager to take all the press and pressure off us and take it himself."