Liam Boyce says he feels as fit as he ever has following a first full pre-season with Burton Albion.
The striker has finally completed a summer with the club who broke their transfer record to sign him last July after his start to life at the Pirelli Stadium was marred by an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained later that month.
He worked hard to return ahead of schedule, notching a goal on his Burton debut against Aston Villa in February , and became the focal point of an Albion side that missed out on an improbable Championship survival by all of four minutes at Preston in May.
The Northern Ireland international's season was extended with games against Panama and Costa Rica in May and June respectively.
And now Boyce has a full pre-season under his belt, coupled with more game-time for his country, he feels fit and firing and is keen to make up for lost time with the visit of Rochdale on Saturday at (3pm) kicking off the start of a full season with the Brewers.
"It feels brilliant," he said of completing a full pre-season.
"Obviously I missed a lot of last season and in the summer I had the internationals, the two games carried me through because I missed a lot of football and it actually helped me, because leaving here we got relegated and I was gutted I didn't have a lot of games the whole year and I just couldn't wait to get back.
"I stayed fit as I could over the season because I had so much time off and I've came back, done the pre-season, got through it thankfully and feel fitter than I ever did."
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It's the first time Boyce has addressed the Brewers' Deepdale heartbreak. The striker had scored in wins against Derby County and Sunderland prior to the final-day showdown as he began to click into gear.
And he's revealed just how much the Brewers' relegation affected him, with his performances toward the end of the season offering a glimpse of what could have been.
"That was the most frustrating thing, to come so close as a squad," Boyce continued.
"Obviously when I came back I scored on my first game back, I just got a chance and I took it. But I didn't feel myself, I didn't feel in a good mood.
"My touch wasn't quite there until the last five or six games when I started playing well. I just always think if I had been a bit fitter or quicker, would we have stayed up?
"Obviously it's not just me, but the way we were playing towards the end of the season, I was always thinking 'if I had come back a bit sooner would we have been safe?'
"But that's just the way football is. We just have to attack this season and get back to where we were."
