For the 26 Borussia Dortmund players, the nine-day training camp in La Manga, Spain, is anything but a holiday, and can be summed up to one thing: hard work.

Partly cloudy skies and temperatures around 15 degrees Celsius: for holiday makers who want to get away from the (mid) European winter, the weather would be a slight disappointment, for the players, however, the conditions are close to perfect – not too cold and not too hot. It actually really doesn’t matter much as the players are breaking up a sweat anyway. In La Manga, they are subjected to a tight schedule: breakfast at 8.30 am, training at 10 am, then lunch, followed by a press conference and interviews, training at 4 pm and dinner.

For former captain Sebastian Kehl, who sat out training on Monday after taking a knock to the knee on Sunday, this is already the fourth training camp in La Manga: “As expected, we are practicing a lot here in La Manga, but we also have big plans for the second half of the season. The squad is looking very good, and it’s normal to talk some trash in training. This is all part of preparation. We are looking forward to the second half of the season; we are now going full tilt!” The morning session included shooting and passing drills, with the players spurred on by loud instructions from head coach Jürgen Klopp and his assistant Zeljko Buvac.

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On Tuesday, the team will resume training at 10 am before they take on Swiss first division side FC Sion in a friendly at the nearby Pinatar Football Center at 4 pm (game can be viewed live and free at BVB total!).