Cole out to sharpen up in Albion freindly

Ashley Cole admits he’s playing catch-up over his fitness levels but is eyeing tomorrow’s friendly at Brighton & Hove Albion as a chance to shake off the rust.

The Chelsea left back’s summer holiday ran later than some of his team-mates due to his appearances for England in Euro 2012, where he missed a spot kick in the Three Lions’ penalty shoot-out defeat to italy.

But the defender is hoping to play the full 90 minutes against former Blues star Gus Poyet’s Gulls at the American Express Community Stadium.

“I feel good to be back in England, I don’t think I am 100 per cent sharp yet, I am probably behind some of the lads by about 10 days so there is catching up to do,” the 31-year-old told the club ‘s official website.

“I feel sharp in the little closing down runs but the longer runs feel a lot harder, especially when you’re trying to repeat them for a longer period, which is what I do in my game, but that will come.

“It’s something that only match practice can really fix, you can train as hard as you like, pre-season is a bit like coming back from an injury, but you need the minutes in a game to get your full fitness. I don’t think anyone is ever at peak fitness at the start of a season, you feel your way into it.”

He added: “I’ve not played 90 minutes yet this pre-season, so hopefully that will come on Saturday at Brighton, where we have a lot of fans travelling and it will be the first chance for a lot of them to get a look at us.

“Then after that it’s the Community Shield, which everyone loves to win to kick off the season, but sometimes people can get carried away with it and think it’s an indicator of what is to come, but it doesn’t work like that, it’s a friendly game really, albeit one that you obviously want to win.”