Tottenham's pre-season tour of South Korea is brought to you in association with Nord VPN, sponsors of football.london's coverage.
Son Heung-min admits the Tottenham players could barely speak to each other after being run into the ground during a gruelling two-hour plus training session in the heat and humidity of South Korea.
Antonio Conte has been pushing the players hard in a trademark pre-season for the Italian with double sessions as they prepare for Wednesday night's first friendly against Team K League. On Monday night, in front of 6,000 Korean fans at the Seoul World Cup Stadium, Conte's fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone had players falling to the floor exhausted and being sick by the side of the pitch.
After almost two hours of training, in which the Tottenham stars were put through various drills, match situations and two-touch and multi-touch matches, Ventrone unleashed 42 pitch-long runs, with very few brief stops, to see who lasted the distance at the end of their third training session in just over 24 hours.
READ MORE: Every word Antonio Conte said on more Tottenham transfers, why he stayed at the club and Son
The target was 42 runs for the players who came back earlier in pre-season and 30 for the international stars who returned just before the flight to Korea.
Harry Kane, who only returned on Saturday morning for the flight from Heathrow, was one of the first to fall at the edge of the pitch, needing to be sick and requiring a cold towel on the back of neck, and a member of Spurs' medical staff came over to check on him before he later returned to the runs to complete his set. Soon after Son also fell to the floor in some discomfort and brought a hush to the 6,000 fans inside the stadium.
Kane went over to check on him and eventually the South Korea captain got to his feet and also returned to the running to a cheer from the crowd. Others joined them in dropping to the floor, including new boy Yves Bissouma, until eventually only a core of super-fit players, who had been training longer in pre-season, remained to complete their 42 runs.
Davinson Sanchez, Bryan Gil and newcomer Pape Matar Sarr were among the fittest and led many of the later runs by a distance, but it was Troy Parrott who led the group back in the 42nd and final run of the night.
When asked about that training session in a press conference on Tuesday and how far he had run, Son admitted that many players we left speechless afterwards.
"I’m not quite sure how many kilometres I covered in the training session but I know there is a set target the coaching staff want us to cover in training. The training is very important ahead of a long season," he said. The team is doing pretty well with the training.
"There were no particular words among the players afterwards and one of the reason was because the training was very hard. One thing I recall is that some of the players were saying the training was very hard so we'll leave it at that."
He added: "The team has been practising and training very well for the upcoming new season. We ended last season with a good win and then in the same manner we want to start the season with a good win. Team spirit is very good and we expect a good game tomorrow."
READ NEXT:
- What happened when Richarlison met Cristian Romero for the first time as a Tottenham player
- Tottenham news and transfers LIVE: All the latest updates and rumours from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
- Full Tottenham Premier League fixture list for 2022/23
The man behind Antonio Conte's brutal Tottenham training session which made Harry Kane sick
Eric Dier declares England intention and excitement at Tottenham's 'great' transfer window
