Oxford United's players were thrown in at the deep end as they returned for pre-season this morning.

The squad will all be put through their paces at Oxford Brookes over the next two days, including the dreaded VO2 max test which assesses the maximum amount of oxygen a player can consume.

Winger Alex MacDonald was the first to undergo the test.

He said: "It's not my favourite time of the year, but it's got to be done.

"I managed about ten minutes, so I'm happy enough with that.

"You know pre-season is going to be tough and so you've got to try and do your its in the off-season, just to keep you ticking over.

"By the looks of things all the lads have done that and we're hopefully coming back with a good base of fitness."

Joe Skarz, Liam Sercombe and Jake Wright were among the early starters, where Ryan Taylor - fit again after missing the end of last season through injury - beat the best time from pre-season 12 months ago.