Chelsea midfielder Danny Drinkwater spent the second half of last season on loan at Aston Villa.
The £100,000-a-week (Spotrac) midfielder did not have the impression he was hoping for at Villa Park.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Drinkwater has admitted he wasn’t fit enough having missed so much football.
“Villa was the biggest wake-up call in terms of my fitness. I was catching up three pre-seasons, a full season with no football and half a season where I’ve played two games,” he said.
“I’m thinking ‘eight games, I’ll be fine’. I was trying to rush it and, to be fair, Dean Smith was quality. He didn’t put any pressure on me, but I felt like I had no time.
“I played four or five games and I didn’t manage to do anything. The fans were waiting for Danny Drinkwater and this loaf of bread turned up in midfield.”
He also lifted the lid in the incident where he headbutted Jota, which he said resulted from pent up frustration having not got onto the pitch against former club Leicester.
Drinkwater is still paying the price for essentially a full season out of the game under Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea.
That looks to have set his fitness, confidence and status back a long way.
When he won the Premier League with Leicester, Drinkwater was talked about in England terms, although the move to Chelsea didn’t really ever look like a good fit in terms of their style of play.
Antonio Conte didn’t fancy him too much and Frank Lampard didn’t find space for him in his Chelsea plans last season.
Drinkwater says he is open to a move abroad now, just to get his career back on track.
He needs to be playing games at this stage of his career, and he has acknowledged that means he needs to get fitter.
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