PLAY-rest-run through-repeat. Welcome to the ‘crazy’ last 10 days of Mikolaj Oledzki as he prepares to play for the FOURTH time in that period.
But the Leeds star insists he would not have had it any other way as it also brought his England debut – making his Polish family proud.
The Rhinos face their third Super League game in eight days at Warrington tonight. Add on England’s match against the Combined Nations All Stars last Friday.
A schedule like that, especially for a forward, would make anyone wince but Oledzki is just one of three players doing it.
And even though it has meant precious little training, he insists he and clubmate Matt Prior, who he faced in the international, feel fine.
The Gdansk-born star, who moved to England as an eight-year-old, said: “The last few days have been pretty crazy to be honest.
“It’s been like having an Easter weekend over and over again. It’s been a busy period but I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s just another challenge to add to the ones we’ve had.
“I played for England on the Friday, then a day off, then played for Leeds on the Sunday. Then it was a recovery session, day off, team run then play again against Leigh on Thursday – same again for today.
“England was awesome and I loved the week. It was another goal I’d been striving to achieve and this only made me hungrier.
“Getting that experience and being in that environment made me want it even more. My family in Poland is very proud of me too. I feel like I’m representing my home now and they know what it means to me.
“And I’m still quite young, so my body can recover quite quickly, so I feel pretty good and fresh on a game day. I spoke to Matt the other day and he said he feels very good – he’s tough as nails!
“There’s not been much training going on but we’re in a good place as a team. I prefer to play than train anyway!”
Oledzki’s physical feats in putting his body through the gruelling schedule have also brought mental benefits.
He now knows he can do it and also knows more about a number of the players he will face tonight.
He lined up alongside Warrington quintet Stefan Ratchford, Mike Cooper, Daryl Clark, Ben Currie and Joe Philbin for Shaun Wane’s side.
And just a week preparing alongside them opened his eyes to how they really do things.
The 22-year-old added: “When you actually get to play with players from another team, you get to realise how good they actually are.
“When you’re playing against them, you concentrate on your own game but when you play on the same side, you actually see what they do.
“It was great to be around players from different clubs as you don’t get to see everything when you play on a weekend. It was nice to find out more.
“We know we need to start winning games to build our way up the table. If we want to be in the play-offs, we have to make the most of the busy schedule.”
Source: Read Full Article