CITY have six “new” faces in the ranks for the proper start of pre-season today.

Graham Alexander counts long-term absentees Alex Pattison and Jake Young as recruits that have been added to his squad.

The duo are both hungry to make up for lost time as the gruelling training schedule building up to the big kick-off at MK Dons gets underway.

“Jake Young basically had one (league) start for us and Patto didn’t have any,” said Alexander.

“They are like new players for me. They go into our recruitment pot.

“We’ve brought four players in but, for me, we’ve got six new signings already. We didn’t have them before.

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“That’s a healthy number and they are all good players, without a doubt. It’s a bonus for us we’ve got those boys coming back.”

Young has worked his way back from a hamstring operation that ruled him out from February. He recently stepped up his rehab with a fortnight at the national football centre at St George’s Park.

Pattison has not kicked a ball since before Christmas but returned to training towards the end of last season.

Alexander resisted the temptation to involve the midfielder in the closing games – a decision that was justified when City won six of the last seven.

“It gave us a bit of peace of mind not putting them at risk when we won the games anyway.

“Throwing them in like that and then losing them again would have been a disaster.

“We didn’t rush them back for the end of the season because I don’t think it would have significantly changed too much.

“Rather than trying to get them back with three or four games to go, it gave them that extra period to really make sure they come back in the safest way.

“I know Patto is a fitness machine. I was wondering more what Jake would be like because I hadn’t seen him in a pre-season or training that much.

“But he also seemed in real strong form, so it was great to see. He’s worked exceptionally hard.

“He had those couple of weeks in St George’s Park during the summer and looks good as well.

“It’s a big year for a lot of players, including us as a team.

“When we were talking about recruitment in the summer, we were including those two in our conversations. These are two new additions coming in.

“Jamie Walker obviously missed three months but he got up to speed towards the end of the season. We expect another uplift from him as well.

“Sam Stubbs missed some games at the end but he is a fit guy anyway, an excellent professional, and he was flying. It’s good to see these boys.

“Even though the other players know them because they’ve been with them for a year, I think they will add a bit of freshness to us in training.

“They’ve been missing from the group, not just for me but from their teammates.”