IT'S that time of the year all professional footballers hate with a passion - the start of pre-season training!

Mark Hughes and his Blackburn Rovers players returned to work at Brockhall on Thursday and judging by some of the pained expressions, the Welshman clearly intends to hit the ground running when the season starts on August 13.

The squad will spend the rest of this week at their new training base, which is the old Academy site, then after a friendly against Morecambe at Christie Park on Saturday, Hughes will whisk his players off to Germany for a 10-day training camp.

Rovers' two new signings, Craig Bellamy and Shefki Kuqi, both trained with their new team-mates for the first time last week and Hughes believes their arrival will help him in his quest to take the club onto the next level.

"This is a good time for Blackburn Rovers because we've got a player of Craig's ability and it's a coup for us," said Hughes.

"It's an opportunity to go to the next level and that's where I want to take Blackburn.

"We've got a good, sound base from which we can work on this season and we've got a cutting edge now.

"Craig is proven at this level. He can score goals and has the abilitiy to work positions and there is good intelligence in his running and general play.

"He's got pace that works defenders and that's something we haven't had, certainly since I have been here.

"His desire to win is certainly in his make-up, too. He has an intense will to win.

"As for Shefki, I needed more options up front. We didn't have enough last year but now we've got a big, physical presence if we need it."

Virtually all of the senior squad were back in training last week, including Matt Jansen who took a complete break from the game at the end of last season on the advice of Hughes.

However, Australian internationals Brett Emerton and Lucas Neill have been given an extra week off following their exploits in the Confederations Cup last month, and the same goes for Morten Gamst Pedersen as he hadn't had a break from football for 13 months prior to the summer.

Ryan Nelsen was also absent as he's still waiting for his work permit to be processed but the Kiwi is expected to return at some point later this week.