Newcastle United winger Christian Atsu has been discussing the impact of the mid-season Spain break on the squad.
The Magpies fly out to Alicante for a five-day training camp to recharge their batteries.
This is just as they did last season, when they won three games in a row after returning to the UK.
"It's been a really hard week," he said.
"We travelled straight after the Wolves game and we arrived in Spain very late, we trained the same day. Then Wednesday we trained twice, the same on Thursday, we had another session on Friday and then a game on Saturday, so it was a really hard week."
"It was definitely ideal preparation for next week. All the focus has to be on the matches we have coming up. I believe with this game we've played against CSKA Moscow, and the hard work we have put in this week on the training ground, I think we have prepared well. The manager wanted us to be focused on the next games and putting things into practice, and that's what we have done."