If you thought Jonjo Shelvey was looking leaner than ever following the return of pre-season training, it seems you’d be right.
As revealed by The Athletic’s Chris Waugh, fitness checks last month showed that the midfielder had lost ’32 millimeters’ of fat in the pinch test run by club medics.
Shelvey spent his summer ‘working really hard’ during a holiday in Turkey and looks to be in the shape of his life, suggesting he is ready to fight for his first-team place ahead of the new 2022/23 season.
The 30-year-old admitted in a recent interview that he will earn a 12-month extension should he play three more Premier League games for the club, but clearly isn’t resting on his laurels after becoming one of the first names on the team-sheet since Eddie Howe’s arrival.
Speaking on The Athletic’s Pod on the Tyne podcast, here’s what Waugh had to say:
“A very trim-looking Jonjo Shelvey, actually I almost think he looks a little bit…it’s bizarre…he looks a little bit too thin.
“He looks different in the face, he looks almost skeletal, I think he said he’d lost 32 millimeters on the pinch test in terms of fat.
“He went to Turkey he’s been working really hard to try and get himself fit.
“He said how Eddie Howe has driven standard so much he talked about defensively he feels that Howe’s brought him on a heck of a lot and that he knows that he just has to keep raising his level.
“Not just because Newcastle are pushing on, but the Premier League and football in general.”
