Spanish sunshine lifts McManus

Gordon Strachan took advantage of the free weekend offered by the Homecoming Scottish Cup semi-finals to take his players to La Manga last week.McManus has benefited from the break after being hit by a recurring ankle injury and could make a comeback as the SPL leaders face Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Saturday."It certainly wasn't a holiday," the Scotland defender said."We were out working every day and it was just a normal week in that respect, so it was really good."Normally, we just wouldn't get the chance to do something like this."That's the first time I have been away in the middle of a season since I joined the first team and it's been brilliant."The facilities at La Manga were absolutely superb, the pitches were immaculate and the gaffer was able to do a lot of work and work some of the lads really hard. It was just what we needed."McManus missed Celtic's 2-0 win over Aberdeen 10 days ago after being hauled off at half-time against Hearts the previous weekend as he struggled with the same ankle injury that had kept him out of Scotland's defeat by Holland last month.But the 26-year-old was able to take part in some light training in Spain and will bid to step up his fitness at Lennoxtown this week."Personally, I was able to enjoy some rest and rehab," he said."I didn't do any heavy training, but was going on walks and jogs and was in the gym every day."It was basically what I would have been doing here, but in a much better climate."Time will tell how great a benefit it has been, but I think that the lads have come back from this fresher and stronger."Celtic hold a one-point advantage over Rangers going into the post-split fixtures and McManus believes the team are in good shape."We're all looking forward to it," McManus told tomorrow's Celtic View."We have a five-game league to win the title now and we are lucky in that we are a point ahead of our nearest rivals."We are going into this match full of confidence and ready for it."Aberdeen have done really well this season, they had a few players missing in the recent game at Celtic Park, so it will be a totally different game this Saturday."There is a league title at stake and it doesn't get any bigger in your career than winning this."From the start of the season we have given our all and I can guarantee that in this final push we will be giving 100% in everything we do, because we want to win as many things as we possibly can as a group."

Source: Team_Talk