Adventures? No matter what, the atmosphere in the check-in hall was cheerful. Not only captain Jan Bořil, who celebrated his 33rd birthday on Thursday, was smiling, and young winger Matěj Jurásek playfully stuck out his tongue during the photo shoot. Why not, he’s getting back into form after an ankle injury in November.
“I haven’t played for a long time, I have a bit of hangover,” the club website quoted a smiling Jurašek as saying. “I started running kilometers, mainly straight runs. He holds his ankle, he can handle it. We’ll see how it goes with changes in direction. I’ll be in contact with the physiotherapists for a while yet.”
Direction Algarve 🛫🇵🇹
The celebs are heading to the Portuguese Algarve for a game training camp. There are 35 players nominated for the camp, including El Hadji Malick Diouf’s new signing.
How to #SKSAlgarve24 are the recovered Matěj Jurásek and assistant coach Zdeněk Houštecký happy? 👉 pic.twitter.com/LS5TxqMkBp
— SK Slavia Prague (@slaviaofficial) January 11, 2024
Jurásek et al. they will tune in Portugal for 17 days, no Fortuna League team will stay abroad for that long. “We are looking forward to pleasant weather and warmth,” explained assistant coach Zdeněk Houštecký. “Until now, we trained mainly in the forest, the boys got busy. They handled it well, we are satisfied. Everyone is happy that we are together again.’
The last rookie to travel to the Atlantic, 19-year-old Senegalese full-back El Hadji Malick Diouf, wore a club kit with the number 12 on his chest at the airport. “We all agreed on him. He is a left-footed, fast and tough player. Running looks very good. We believe that he will establish himself here, he will be a good reinforcement. We’ll see how fast his adaptation will be, moving to another club is not easy for anyone,” Houštecký noted.
Two teenagers will also gain experience at the training camp: 19-year-old defensive midfielder Matěj Žitný and one year younger offensive all-rounder Jan Lacko, who, like captain Bořil, had his birthday on the day of departure. “They are typologically the players we like. They will definitely get space in the Algarve, we are curious about them,” said Houštecký.
Three test matches await the Slavists: January 16 against Danish Sönderjysk, January 19 with AIK Stockholm and January 27 against Beijing Chung-che Kuo-an. The return home is planned for the last Sunday in January, two weeks before the spring league prologue with Jablonec.