Mikel Sets Fitness Target After Completing Stoke City Move

John Mikel Obi admits he is still ”quite a long way off” from full match fitness after completing a move to Sky Bet Championship club Stoke City.

Mikel penned a one-year contract with the Potters on Monday.

The midfielder last kicked a ball in March during his time with Turkish Super Lig outfit Trabzonspor.

The former Chelsea star refused to put a timescale on his fight for fitness but hopes to be in a position to play at least some part for the Potters during the early weeks of the campaign

.He told SCFC: “I am quite a long way off [match fitness]. We have three to four weeks until the season starts and I don’t quite know where I will be.

“I have been doing things right at home. I have been trying to train and to the gym – but it’s never quite the same.

“It is going to take a while [to get to match fitness] but with my ambition and knowing where I want to be when the season starts, I hope I will be there or thereabouts.”