Dean Smith has hailed the desire of Rico Henry, Lewis Macleod, Josh McEachran, Alan Judge and Justin Shaibu for the extra work they've put in to step up their returns from injury.

Henry, Macleod, McEachran and Shaibu have been back at the Jersey Road training ground this week, while Judge is currently on his honeymoon after spending the past few weeks recovering from a second and, hopefully, final stint surgery.

The full first team squad return on Monday but Smith has been pleased with the attitude shown by the Bees' quintet, who missed the end of the season with their respective injuries.

He said: “It's important that they do that and one of the biggest things for me is the players want to do that.

“They've shown a great desire to get as fit as they can for the first game of the season.

“They've not been told they had to come in; they chose to come in and when you see that from the players it shows you've got the right character at the club.”

Rico Henry on the ball

Brentford head of medical Neil Greig confirmed that Henry is set to be fit for the start of pre-season training.

He told the club's official website last week: “Rico Henry was, unfortunately, unable to recover from a knee injury in time to take part in the Under-20 World Cup in South Korea this summer.

“He sustained a ligament injury in the final weeks of the season which, despite the best efforts of ourselves and the England medical staff, did not progress to full fitness in time for Rico to play in the group games.

“Rico therefore returned to the club at the end of May and has been completing his recovery with our staff.

“Following a short break this week, he will return to the club a week ahead of the main group in order to complete a week of conditioning work ahead of a full pre-season.”

Lewis Macleod on the ball against Ipswich

Macleod has spent most of the summer at the training ground but it is not expected that he will be fit for at least the first month of the season.

Greig added: “As you’d expect with any of our long-term injured players, Lewis Macleod’s summer has largely been spent at the Training Ground working with medical and performance staff.

“He had a short break at the end of the season to recharge and has now been back working hard for the last three weeks.

“Lewis has, what we hope will be, his final review with the consultant next week, where we hope to able to agree his final progressions towards team training.

“This however is only one part of a complex jigsaw with injuries such as Lewis’s and there a number of key objective physical markers that he needs to achieve before making a graduated return to the squad.

“It is realistic for us to predict that Lewis will take a monitored part in elements of the squad pre-season training, however the final stages of his reconditioning will run alongside that through pre-season in order for us to achieve that physical gains that Lewis needs to perform well again in the Championship.

“With that in mind, it’s unrealistic to predict that Lewis will be a fully fit member of the squad for the first league game in August, with a return to the squad at some point in September being more likely.”

Josh McEachran

McEachran has spent most of his summer at the training ground and has been working this week to be fully fit for the new season.

Greig explained: “Josh McEachran continued to work with the medical and performance staff following the end of last season having been unable to return to full training, following his ankle injury, before the last game.

“As is always the case for players who are either injured or unable to train fully for physical reasons, Josh’s close season break was considerably less than the fully fit members of the squad.

“He will also return to pre-season training one week ahead of the main group in order to ensure that he’s in the best possible shape ahead of the new season.”

Young striker Shaibu has already been at the training ground preparing for the start of pre-season.

Greig confirmed: “Justin Shaibu sustained an ankle injury which caused him to miss the final games of last season and, as with the other injured players, has been working to ensure that he’s as close to full fitness as possible for the pre-season training block.

“Justin’s progress has been steady and, following a short break this week back in Denmark, he will return to the club and complete a similar block of conditioning to that of Josh and Rico ahead of the main group returning on 26 June.”

Judge, meanwhile, has been given a break to celebrate his wedding and is on track but it remains unclear when he will return to first team action.

Alan Judge

Greig confirmed: “Alan Judge’s lengthy recovery from a significant lower limb fracture injury is continuing and he is now seven-weeks post-surgery from what we hope will be the final surgical procedure that he will have to undergo.

“Alan is off his crutches, walking well and his review with the consultant last week placed him at exactly the expected point for this stage.

“Alan now has a busy few weeks as he returns to Ireland in order to get married and, following his honeymoon, he will return to the training ground at the end of June where we hope to see further evidence of improved healing.

“Alan will then spend a block of reconditioning time in Philadelphia in July, working with Bill Knowles, the conditioning coach that we have worked successfully with in the past with other players.

“Following that, we hope Alan will be in a position to recommence his outdoor work and a graduated return to the squad.”