Critical to assessing the players’ fitness and agility levels, post-season testing was carried out on the first team last week by Head of Sport Science Damien Doyle.

Helping him from the MK Dons team was University of Bedfordshire graduate Tom Bromley who is now working as the Dons First Team and Academy Sports Scientist.

Putting the Dons through their paces were also first year students Aaron Millar, Elliot Plant, Liam Brown and Oliver Taylor who conducted tests to measure their flexibility, speed and strength using a range of the Sport Science and Physical Activity Department's mobile equipment.

The data will be combined with previous results and provide a baseline for future ones to create a more complete profile of the elite players.

Dons player Ben Reeves commented: “It gives us an idea of what we need to work on. It gives us a target to try and hit in the future.”

Not only is the testing beneficial to the Championship club, but also to the students that assisted, whose practical skills and employability have been boosted by the experience.

Student Oliver Taylor was positive about the experience saying: “I’d definitely recommend this course, especially because you get to work with such a big academy and that a few days ago we were working with the first team as well.

“It just shows that we can progress on and work with high performing, and well regarded athletes,” he added.

Head of Sport Science Damien Doyle was appreciative of their support and explained: “The guys came down and helped set up, as well as assist with the testing we did. They brought with them equipment which isn’t available to us at MK Dons, such as speed gates, which is a big help to us.

“They were heavily involved in all our testing and without them we couldn’t have got the quality of results that we’ve got.”