David Cancola insists the end of the international break cannot come quickly enough as he eagerly anticipates Ross County’s return to Premiership action.
County return from a two-week lay-off this afternoon, when Hibernian make the trip to Victoria Park.
Austrian midfielder Cancola travelled to Madrid to visit a friend last weekend, after Staggies boss Malky Mackay gave his players time off.
Despite the fine weather in Spain, Cancola insists he would far rather have been in Dingwall preparing for a league match.
Cancola is relishing the busy upcoming period, which continues with another home game against Motherwell on Tuesday, as he seeks to restore his playing routine.
Cancola said: “I think we’re all refreshed and looking good in training, but personally I hate those breaks.
“They get me out of the rhythm, and I like to stay in the matchday rhythm.
“I’m used to it to be honest. At my last teams I was used to playing Saturday and Wednesday because of European games, so I like that the most.
“I like not to have too long before the next game, and for training to really just focus on the game so that we don’t have to work too much on keeping fitness up and staying in our rhythm.
“For me, it’s the best case having match after match.”
New recruits still adapting to challenges of Scottish football
Cancola is in his second season at Victoria Park, having made the switch from Czech outfit Slovan Liberec last summer.
He made 18 appearances in an injury-hit debut campaign, netting his only goal in a 1-1 draw with Livingston last December.
Staggies boss Mackay oversaw another summer of change, making 10 new additions who were all signed from outwith Scotland.
Drawing on his own experience of adapting to the Premiership, Cancola believes there is a lot for players to get used to.
He added: “I love watching people and soaking up as much information as I can.
“When I go to a new league I try to watch as much football on TV because I believe you can learn from just seeing them.
“I talk to some of the older guys to get all the help I can too and adapt as quickly as possible.
“It’s a very levelled league – it’s very quick and physical, but also a very high technical level.
“In the leagues I played in before, I would say the Austrian division was more technical but less physical, and the Czech league was more physical but less technical. Here is right in the middle, you need a good mix of everything.
“You can see when new players come it takes a while to adapt, but we’re all good players and I think everyone will catch up.”
Austrian midfielder intent on making Dingwall a fortress
Cancola is eager to give the Staggies support reason to celebrate when they take on Hibs.
He added: “We said that from the start of this season, we want to make this stadium a fortress again, because that will help us have a really good season.
“Obviously we’ve been working on different things that we want to change, new aspects that we want to bring into our game.
“It’s just normal things though, not rocket science or anything. Football is often simpler than you think, and if we do the basics well we’re going to see that in matches.”
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