SWINDON Town’s players could do with a break, in the mind of manager Mark Cooper, but they’ll be required to stick to a stringent fitness plan over the summer nonetheless.

The Robins’ squad will undergo fitness testing next week, following their final League One outing of the season against Rotherham United tomorrow, from which physio Paul Godfrey and fitness coach Michael Cooper will be able to assess what each player needs to do during their time off.

From then until pre-season training gets underway at the end of June, it will be the responsibility of the players to keep themselves in shape, with the threat of fines looming for anyone who lets themselves go.

Boss Cooper did stress, however, that the fitness regime will not be too tough, saying: “I enjoy working with the players but they need a rest. They need that break – they probably all do – to come back fresh and make sure we try to improve for the start of next season.

“We’ll go away. We’ve got fitness testing with the players next week and they’ll be given programmes from that testing saying what they need to do so they come back in the right shape. They know that if they don’t there’ll be big fines.

“We’re not asking them to kill themselves, we just want to make sure they come back with a certain level of fitness so we can go straight back into training and not ruin them silly.”