Stokes welcomes the break from action
By: Mark Henderson on 06 Sep, 2011 07:43
GIVEN the choice, Anthony Stokes would have preferred to have spent the last week away with the Irish national side instead of having a break.
But, having being omitted from Giovanni Trapattoni’s squad for the European 2012 qualifiers against Slovakia and Russia, the striker hopes the time off will allow him to be suitably refreshed when Celtic return to action this weekend against Motherwell.
“I would like to be away with the national team myself but obviously we’ll see what happens with that one,” Stokes told the Celtic View. “But it’s a nice time when you’re not away for the internationals and you get a break.
“I just relax and recharge the batteries. We didn’t have a lot of time off over the summer – just about three-and-a-half weeks – so it’s nice to get a little break into the season.”
And when the Celtic players all return to training at Lennoxtown later this week, there will be two new recruits in the dressing room – defender Badr El Kaddouri and striker Mohamed Bangura.
The Sierra Leone forward will provide extra competition to Stokes and his fellow strikers for a place in the starting XI.
But the Irishman insists he's not concerned about having someone fighting for his place.
“It increases competition with us as he will give everyone a lift and get more out of the existing strikers here,” he said.
“I don’t think it gets you on your toes more and gets you working harder to try and improve your games, because if you’re slack whatsoever the amount of competition means you won’t be in the team. So for the club as a whole, I think it’s good.”
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