Jody Craddock has been in football long enough now to no longer feel any sort of 'back to school' feeling when he returns with the rest of the squad to the Compton training ground this morning.

In any case, pre-seasons are extremely different to how they used to me when Jody started out in the professional ranks with Cambridge 16 years ago.

Not least as the training ground has certainly not been a stranger to the Wolves playing staff during the summer, with all the personnel bar the international contingent checking in at different intervals either for physical testing or their own personal work to maintain a base level of fitness.

And so Jody, fresh from putting pen to paper on a new one-year contract to extend his Molineux stay, is ready, willing and able to step up preparations for the Premier League as pre-season officially kicks off this morning.

He admits:  "The older I get I think the pre-seasons start to blur into one!

"When I was younger I was probably more nervous about it but not any more.

"I've stuck to the programme which Tony (Daley) has given me but as you get older I think you can only run as fast as you can run or as far as you can run - it's about listening to your body.

"The only person I can race against is myself, I'm not worried about how fit the next person is but just that I'm up to the level I need to be at.

"I know what's involved with being a centre half and it's a different sort of fitness to being maybe a central midfielder or a right winger."

The development in footballing fitness aided by the likes of advanced testing and sports science means that gone are the days when players returned to gruelling long runs in a bid to simply sweat off any summer excesses.

Under fitness and conditioning coach Tony Daley, there's a far more scientific approach to ensuring the team hit the ground running when the season starts in August and Jody can certainly feel the difference.

"I remember at the start of my career there were people who came back at Cambridge a stone overweight and as bad as it sounds it was actually funny at the time," he recalls.

"The game has changed now and that doesn't happen anymore - if you want to do well in the game you do have to have the discipline to keep yourself in shape.

"The programme we follow over the summer is good.

"It's all there in black and white what we have to do and it gives us the discipline to follow it.

"It gives us something to stick to and if it wasn't there maybe some days you might think you could give it a miss.

"From a young age I always kept myself in some sort of shape over the summer and did my own stuff but with this programme you certainly feel the benefits when you come back for pre-season.

"And to be honest I enjoy making sure I keep myself fit."

Wolves know they will be making a major step-up in quality from Premier League to Championship this season.

And that is why the fitness aspect of their performance will prove as crucial as ever.

Last season's blistering start with 22 points from the first eight games saw boss Mick McCarthy paying great credit to the pre-season efforts of Tony Daley, and the players are aiming to hit the same heights of fitness this time around.

"We're going into the Premier League where the standard is so much better so we all know we've got to be as fit as we possibly can," added Jody.

"It's great that we've got so much confidence in Tony Daley.

"He got it right for us last year and will do it again this year - he's a fantastic fitness coach."