Everton are launching into their familiar training routine days after contact sessions were rubber stamped by the Premier League.

The Blues will return to action in fewer than three weeks if the league’s planned June restart goes off without a hitch.

Everton Head of Physical Conditioning Francesco Mauri welcomed the clear timeline which would see the Blues play again on the weekend of June 19-22 – but conceded the cramped preparation period presents a unique challenge for coaches and players.

Mauri and his fellow coaches have devised an outline programme for the three weeks before Everton’s first competitive match since 8 March.

A full-scale 11v11 practice match is pencilled in for the back end of next week after the UK Government announced 'phase 3' - competitive sport behind closed doors - is now permitted.

The “biggest” session of a “normal” training week falls on the second of five days – meaning Everton’s players are today [Tuesday] undergoing their toughest workout since reporting back to USM Finch Farm nearly a fortnight ago.

“We do almost all the training with the ball but it is more aggressive on the most demanding day,” Mauri told evertonfc.com.

“We use small spaces and work with a lot of intensity.

“The physical focus is to achieve a high number of accelerations and decelerations – to do a lot of movements like tackles, shooting and contact.

“On Tuesday we will have a tournament with four teams of four, we set up two small pitches, 40m long and 35m wide.

“Games last two-and-a-half minutes and when the ball goes out we restart from the goalkeepers so the intensity remains very high.

“Competition also creates high intensity because the players want to win.

“We have six to eight games, after every game you rotate so you play two or three games against each team.

“They are teammates but there is a lot of competition between teammates.

“Ultimately, you have to show you deserve to play, so sometimes you have to be better than your teammates to have that possibility.”

Everton’s focus is primarily on contact training and, after being granted permission for limited contact last Thursday, players followed a three-day block of work to prepare for more recognisable sessions across the opening three weeks of this month.

Training between Thursday-Saturday – Sunday was a day off – was, explained Mauri, designed to reacquaint players’ bodies with the unique stresses imposed by football and physical contact.

The programme from this week features light training on Monday and an active recovery session 24 hours after Tuesday’s “high load” effort.

Thursdays and Fridays are largely set aside for tactical drills, described by Mauri as "normal football in wider spaces". 

A painstaking analysis of players’ physical output is underpinning every aspect of Everton’s training, with Mauri stressing data is employed to prevent over-exertion and not to extract more from individuals.

“The main part of training is the same for every player but we closely analyse the data day-by-day,” said Mauri.

“The main thing is to control the load on each player and avoid it becoming too much.

“We use GPS (Global Positioning System monitors) to analyse different data such as total distances covered, high-sprint distances and explosive distances.

“Heart rate is also very important, this shows you how fit the player is.

“If he recovers quickly from a high heart rate to a normal heart rate during a break between a repetition of the drill it shows he is in good shape.

“If a player takes longer to recover, then maybe something has changed and we have to put a focus on them to understand why.

“We look at this data during training and after training, when we have the full analysis.

“We have a guy with an iPad on the pitch and during a drill we look at heart rates to understand if the players are recovering.

“When we have a break we look at other data like total distances or sprint distances to understand if what we planned is happening.

“The most important thing is for the players to understand, it is not to check if they are lazy or someone is doing less.

"It is the complete opposite – it is to control that they don’t go above the line; to avoid an overload.

“They understand we use this data to take care of them.

“But the data is just one part of our analysis.

“Observing the players is a very important part of our work and so is the feedback they give us.”

Players report a rate of perceived exertion – a difficulty rating measured on a scale of 1-10 – following each session, although Mauri explained it was imperative to assess the responses only in the context of like-for-like sessions.

The Italian, who came to the Club with manager Carlo Ancelotti back in December, confessed Everton's coaching staff didn’t expect players to report back in such robust condition after nearly nine weeks away from USM Finch Farm.

Moreover, he viewed the initial days of contact training as a “strong first step” to advancing fitness.

“This is a big challenge for all of us,” Mauri continued.

“It is the first time we have had three weeks to prepare for nine games.

“It cannot be the same as a pre-season when you have four-to-six weeks to prepare for eight months.

“With such a short period to be ready we had to come back to our normal kind of work as soon as possible.

“The non-contact training is focused mainly on injury prevention.

“When the games start the most important thing will be to avoid injuries and give time to the players to recover.

“The games are not only games, they are the biggest training session any player can do.

“Maybe at the end of next week, we will have an 11v11 game to have the feeling of being back playing on a full pitch and to give a stimulus similar to a game.”