A-League: I’m not fit enough yet, admits Usain Bolt

Usain Bolt admits he will be nervous and expects to make mistakes when he makes his professional soccer debut

Usain Bolt struggles to recover at Central Coast Mariners training yesterday. Picture: AAP.

He has faced the pressure of ­defending his Olympic gold medals against some of the best sprinters of all time in front of 100,000 fans and with the eyes of hundreds of millions of television viewers fixed on him.

But Usain Bolt admits he will be nervous and expects to make mistakes during his professional soccer debut for the Central Coast Mariners in a trial match against a local select XI at Central Coast Stadium on Friday night.

After just under two weeks in the country, the world’s fastest man will be thrust into one of the biggest challenges of his sporting career as he continues chasing his dream to earn an A-League contract with the Mariners.

Mariners coach Mike Mulvey confirmed yesterday Bolt will be given some match time — just how much is yet to be decided — against the representative side made up of players who will be as keen and hungry as Bolt to make an impression.

Mulvey said he will be guided by what his staff say, but Bolt was fairly upfront, suggesting 15 to 20 minutes “though that is up to the coaches”. Whatever happens, the Jamaican superstar understands the pressure that will be involved on Friday night as the stakes start to get higher for him.

“There will be nerves, ­definitely,” a tired and sweating Bolt told the media.

“This is not like a charity game any more. Maybe I will get 15 or 20 minutes.

“This is real and there will be a bit of nerves.

“I expect to make mistakes that you guys (the media) will critique, but I am used to that. I know I am not going to have a perfect, day but I will make myself proud and push myself.”

Whether Bolt will be able to cope with 15 minutes let alone 20 minutes remains to be seen. Yesterday was his second session in front of the media since he ­arrived 12 days ago.

He has also had several ­behind-closed-doors runs with the squad and a couple of individual run-throughs away from ­prying eyes.

Wearing gloves and skins, he was pushed fairly hard yesterday while warming up doing laps and during the solid passing drills. It was noticeable he was struggling more than his teammates.

At various times he had his hands on his hips and was crouched on his knees as he ­attempted to recover and he ­admitted he is nowhere near the football fitness levels of the rest of the squad.

“I am not there (fitness) yet,” Bolt said. “I wouldn’t say my ­fitness has improved a lot but it has improved. Last week we took it easy, but this week I have been trying to do the full program and getting up to pace because this Friday I get a chance to play a little bit.

“It’s about getting fit and getting a lot of touches on the ball.

“The more I play the more comfortable I get. I have been getting good feedback from the coaches and I really appreciate what they and my teammates are doing for me.”

Bolt said he is not the type to get frustrated but admitted the biggest challenge for him so far is coping with the drills and the small-sided games.

“I am not used to the stop and go, picking up speed, up and down and up and down and back and forth,” he says. “It is about practice and getting used to the system.”

Bolt generally took a safety-first approach yesterday, keeping things simple and not trying to get too much out of his comfort zone.

He had trouble with his positioning at times during some of the tactical work and small-sided, keeping-possession games. There were also some nice touches, though he is all left foot and rarely did anything with his right.

Bolt appeared to enjoy the shooting drill towards the end of the session, firing one thunderous left footer well over the bar and on to the electronic scoreboard with his first attempt.

He did not hit his next three ­efforts as well, all with his left foot and none with any great deal of power. None of the attempts were on target.