BEN Currie has described a Warrington Wolves collective effort that is aimed at keeping the team safe and well for more reasons than playing matches.

A fully-fit squad passed last week’s Covid-19 testing and reported to training on Monday for the first time since March to prepare for the season’s resumption behind closed doors against Hull Kingston Rovers at Headingley on August 8.

The protocols in place at the Padgate Campus training ground to provide the players and coaching staff with a safe and protected environment have also reinforced a mentality of “we’re in this together” among the players, a quality which they may need to call on when the matches come thick and fast as the new-look 2020 schedule progresses.

“The set-up at training is completely different with all the protocols in place. What we have to go through is a strange environment, but it’s good,” said back-rower Currie, an ever-present in the seven games before the coronavirus outbreak brought about a suspension in sport across the world.

“We had to do the drive-through test at the training ground last week to make sure we were all clear to turn up on Monday for the first day of training. Everybody came through it fine. We’ll be doing it every Thursday from now.

“Every day at the front counter we have to sign in and have a temperature check, and you have to follow all the one-way systems. We have the training barn set up with one-way systems, where there are 30 chairs lined up across the barn two metres apart.

“That’s where you leave your bag and put your boots on.”

There’s no more team meals, while showering and getting changed is done at home.

“We’ve got to make sure we stick to this because there’s three or four of our lads’ partners who are pregnant at the moment and some due in the next five to 10 weeks,” said the 26-year-old England international.

“So we’ve got to be careful, this is no joke and we know that. We’re doing this to help each of our teammates. Nobody wants to be catching it and taking it home to their partners.

“We’ve all got to look after each other and stick to the guidelines in place.

“I don’t know the actual rules, but I’m sure if one of us does end up with it then the people he’s been in contact with won’t be able to play or train either so that could take out quite a bit of your squad so we’re looking after each other not just for ourselves but for our family and friends as well.”

Currie described Monday as like ‘the first day back at school’, also confirming there were one or two dodgy lockdown ‘head shaves and mullets’ knocking about.

He woke up before his alarm, such was his excitement to return to work.

“The majority of the squad I’d not seen for four months, so it was good to see everybody’s face and to catch up,” he said, albeit by talking from opposite sides of a room in some instances.

“It does feel weird going to work again. Since we’ve all probably been professional, not many of us would have had four months off over the past 10 to 15 years.

“The break was good at first but then you soon get bored and you want to get back in.

“It got harder the longer it went on, motivating yourself to train, but I kept on top of it. I’ve come back and passed my fitness test, and my body fats are still the same, so I’m definitely happy with that.

“Everyone’s come back in pretty good shape. It was a lot of responsibility for the lads, they could easily have gone drinking, eating whatever they wanted, and put on weight or lost their fitness.

“The conditioning staff will be looking at all the stats from the first few days and they’ll be very pleased with what’s going on.”

Currie picked out a player who had caught his eye on return.

“Matty Davis has come back leaner and stronger, so he’s trained really hard,” said Currie.

“The boys who were injured have come back now and so we’ve got a fully fit squad so it’s good to get to train on the field with big numbers.”

The work has been tough but enjoyable.

“We’ve only two weeks of pre-season before the week leading into the first game, so we don’t have as long as we usually would so we’re probably trying to cram quite a bit into the time,” he explained.

“We do a lot of skill games which are conditioning as well. So, we might have 11 attackers against six defenders, so the six defenders are constantly moving and that’s more game-related fitness. That’s probably the better conditioning for us and a lot of teams will be doing that.

“There’s not going to be many easy days to come, but they’re good days.”