Balancing Act: Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna admits navigating Premier League Intensities and Injury Risks

The Blues boss has always said that he expects his players to train as they play, with Kalvin Phillips recently saying that McKenna's methods are very similar to how notorious task master Marcelo Bielsa was at Leeds. That hard work behind the scenes allowed Town's players to be ultra-fit last season, out-run almost everyone and repeatedly score decisive late goals on the way to Championship promotion.  With less games in the Premier League, there has been a lot more time on the training pitch. A third of the way into the campaign, 18 of the 27-man first team squad have had an injury at some stage - many of them muscle strains/tears. Key trio Axel Tuanzebe, Chiedozie Ogbene and George Hirst all are all long-term absentees. "Of course it's something that we've looked at," said McKenna. "Planning for the season, and in season, it's about managing the training load in an appropriate way. I think we're doing a good job of that to be honest. "I understand the question. Our injuries, the longer-term ones, Axel cuts his thumb and then gets a hamstring injury sprinting up and down the line against Hudson-Odoi at a level he hasn't played at for quite a few years, George Hirst comes on against Tottenham and is battling, Chieo Ogbene snaps an Achilles against Brentford... I think most of our big injuries have been that. "The physical jump in the league is really, really big in the matches. From a physical point of view the players are giving so much in the games. For a newly-promoted team we're in the top third of Premier League teams for almost every metric, which is a big effort to be honest. To make that jump and compete is very, very rare for a newly-promoted team, so I know how much the players are giving in matches. "Of course that's going to have a strain. We're modifying training a lot more than we would have done in the Championship and League One in trying to adapt for that. "We knew, going into the season, that we probably would have more injuries. We've had a really good injury record in general over the last few years. "We've modified as much as we can, but there's also a risk to not training intensely. If you go into the most intense league in the world, where you know you're going to have to run and fight so, so hard in every game, and not prepare for that then, by science and common knowledge, that would probably lead to more injuries. "It's a mixture of all things, but we're trying to make sensible decisions for the benefit of the group all the time."