Yahoo Sports Grealish to use England 'heartbreak' as City motivation ahead of new campaign
A refreshed and rejuvenated Jack Grealish says he is ready to use the ‘heartbreak’ of his exclusion from England’s EURO 2024 squad this summer as the ideal motivation to roar back with City ahead of the 2024/25 season.
Grealish and City are gearing up take on Catalan giants Barcelona at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium on Tuesday in what will be the third match of our 2024 USA Tour.
For Pep Guardiola’s squad its another chance to hone preparations ahead of next month’s start of the new Premier League campaign.
And for Grealish in particular the match-up with another of world football’s most iconic club sides offers another showcase to get in perfect shape for City ahead of the big kick-off and further fuel his desire to make up for the agony of missing out on England’s memorable campaign in Germany.
“I’m obviously really happy to be back. I have had probably one of the longest summer breaks I've had in the last three or four years," Grealish said.
“To get over five weeks holiday was very nice.
“I will be honest, I would say football wise [being left out of England’s Euro 2024 squad] it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my career.
“I was absolutely heartbroken and then when you're on your holidays, every time you turn your phone on or TV you see it
WATCH: City v Barcelona: European heavyweights square up in Orlando
“I will be honest and say It was the hardest moment for me as a footballer. I have had a lot of ups and downs but I will use this as motivation going into this new season and hopefully I can prove a few people wrong.
“I have to use that now as motivation going into this season and try and have the same mentality I had two years ago.
“In my first season at City I wasn't as good as I could be and then I came back stronger. I want to do that again.
“So I am happy now to be back and to get a full pre-season under my belt. As you can see there aren’t too many of the first team guys here so I want to be here and get as fit as possible ahead of the new season.”
Looking forward, Grealish also said he was crystal clear about what he needed to do in order to bet back to his very best for City, with fitness and regular game time the key.
“I know it's easy to say but I feel I am best when i play with confidence and playing regularly.
“When I am at full fitness like I was in the second half of the Treble season, I felt so fit and felt I could play every three days. Which I was - I played so many games. To be playing with so much confidence and in that team was a dream
“This is a chance now for me to get my fitness and to have a two-week head start and try and be as fit as possible and play with confidence.”
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USA TOUR 2024
City are still to face AC Milan, Barcelona and Chelsea during the Club’s pre-season tour of the United States.
As always, mancity.com and the official app are the best places to keep across all things City during our time in the US.
Including pre-match press conferences and live open training as well as detailed and varied in-game and post-friendly coverage of all our fixtures, our website and app provide fans with a complete City experience, all from one handy place.
All US Tour matches will be broadcast live on CITY+ in the following countries: United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and United Arab Emirates.
To access these matches from one of the locations listed above, you will need an active CITY+ subscription. Those same restrictions will apply to full-match replays and Pitcam highlights.
For fans living outside of the countries named, we will have a full explainer article on how to tune in coming in due course.
Subscribers will be able to watch on the official app and mancity.com, with the option to cast matches onto their TV from mobile devices. Find out how to do this via our handy guide here.
For more information on CITY+, including subscription prices, click here.
