AS the first part of their pre-season training comes to an end, Sam Burgess has been impressed with how his Warrington Wolves side have adapted to a slight change.

And despite the fact numbers have been slightly lower due to injury recoveries and certain players being allowed more time off, he says they have still been able to get plenty done.

The squad are now on their Christmas break having been in training since mid-November, with senior players rejoining in stages.

The last group returned at the beginning of last week and included those who finished the 2024 campaign on international duty with England.

“We’ve had everyone back from Monday, which has been nice,” Burgess said.

“We’ve still got a couple of guys recovering from injury so they’re not quite fully with us, but we’ve been able to get some good practice done.

“We’ll hit the ground running from January and get some good work done before the games come around.”

As Burgess mentions, there are still several players not in full training as they recover from surgeries, most notably winger Josh Thewlis, hooker Sam Powell and second-rower Lachlan Fitzgibbon who all underwent shoulder operations during the off-season.

> Click here to read a full update on Warrington Wolves' injured players

Training will resume on January 2, with the final block to include three pre-season friendlies – away to Halifax Panthers on January 12 before home matches against Widnes Vikings (January 17) and Leigh Leopards (February 1) – and a week-long overseas camp in Tenerife.

Rather than seeing this as a new start, however, Burgess says having largely the same squad as he had in 2024 has allowed them to dive straight back into what they were doing.

“We’ve picked up from where we left off,” he said.

“The players are 12 months further into the programme so we’ve been able to get straight down to work a bit quicker.

“They’ve got a greater understanding of how we want to play and what our identity looks like.

“Even though we’ve had fewer numbers than we had this time last year, we’ve been able to get the same amount of work done which is nice.”