So in between sessions, mcfc.co.uk exclusively caught up with the England defender for an injury update as he recovers from a knee cartilage problem.
Richards, who turned 20 earlier this week, told us: “It’s been a frustrating time with the injury, but I’ve had a good summer.
“I went to Miami with a few of the boys. It was nice to get away after the way the season tailed off and it didn’t turn out as good as we expected.
“It was nice to have those couple of weeks away, but now I just want to get back into football, especially after my injury and show everybody what I can do again.”
Micah missed the final 11 games of the season as City ended a campaign that started with much promise in ninth place – winning only three of the games the powerful defender missed.
And talking about the recovery from his knee operation, Richards added: “The injury’s coming along exceptionally well and I’ve been at Carrington a lot this week running and getting my fitness back up to the level it was at before.
“So it’s looking good and hopefully I’ll have no further problems. I’m just looking forward to pre-season now because it seems like ages ago since I last played.”
In fact his last appearance of the season was the 2-0 home defeat by Everton on February 25 and his next appearance in a blue shirt will be under a new manager following the appointment of Mark Hughes earlier this month.
He noted: “We’ve got a new manager now and he did a great job at Blackburn and hopefully he can do the same with us.
“I first spoke to him briefly when I was in last week and he seems like a very good guy. Everyone appears to respect him and that’s the main thing.
“It’s impressive that he’s gained that much respect straight from the start from the other staff and he’ll certainly command that when the rest of the players return to training.”
