It's proving time, in a week.....

The pre-season campaign gets underway this time next week. It's traditionally a time of year which players hate, although they do mostly admit that there is a benefit to it.

It's hard graft getting these football players into shape. I don't mean that they will have all let themselves get fat over the summer, and to be fair all of them will have had pre-designed fitness calendars prepared for them to follow over the summer months to ensure that they don't fall too far out of shape, but being 'fit' and being Premier League 'fit' are two different things entirely.

However there are several people at Newcastle who will be relying on this pre-season. It will be vitally important to them both in terms of fitness and in terms of gauging how they have recovered from their respective injuries. Hatem Ben Arfa being the first, and probably most anticipated, name on the list.

It emerged yesterday that Hatem has been given a clean bill of health after his eight month injury lay-off. Good news, great news in fact. That means that when he gets back he can get his head down in pre-season and really work on getting back to match fitness in preparation for the new season.

This period is vitally important to him. His injury may have healed but the psychological scars will linger no doubt. That is why this pre-season will also be important in terms of confidence for the player. He may feel alright running and training, but what about when he is on the end of his first tackle? Coming through that is imperative, and once he does he can start to get his confidence back fully.

Dan Gosling is another one who will be looking to use this pre-season for exactly the same reasons as Ben Arfa. Both have been out of action for a long time, although Gosling has been out for much longer - 15 months in fact.

This is the first time we'll really be able to see Gosling in action. At the moment he is a bit of unknown quantity to us although he was highly-rated at Everton, until they lost him on a free and now he is suddenly over-rated. Go figure.....

That's two "old boys" that need this pre-season desperately, both for fitness and confidence, but it's not just the old guard that need it as some of our new boys, one in particular, will require a good pre-season for much the same reason.

Sylvain Marveaux has been out of action since November. Now I know he's passed medicals and that he was fit to play for Rennes (who wouldn't play him as he'd already said that he would be leaving at the end of the season), but there is still a question mark over him in the eyes of some.

Understandable given our history with injuries, but if he can come through a gruelling pre-season unscathed it should ease some concerns.

My only concern with all three of these is not the fact that they have been injured. My concern is that if they get another injury it will immediately be linked with their old injuries and we'll have signed crocks/done thing on the cheap/whatever fans can think of to have a bash at the club. Injuries happen to the best of them!

Take it is read that they will have had better medical treatment than you or I will ever have so it would be a pretty safe bet to suggest that they have all recovered enough to resume full training again. However the human body is a funny old thing when it wants to be so don't be surprised if it takes any of them a while to get back up to speed.

Hopefuly all three can come through pre-season fit, raring, and ready to go!