American hangover can be no excuse for Wrexham ahead of Dons opener

Not many fourth tier sides get the opportunity to tour America as part of their pre-season preparations, but Wrexham cannot afford use it as an excuse ahead of the new campaign.

The newly promoted Welsh side spent two weeks States-side ahead of their return to the EFL after 15 years, playing Chelsea, Manchester United, LA Galaxy and Philadelphia Union II during their tour.

This Saturday, they get back to business proper, hosting MK Dons at the Racecourse Ground for the League Two curtain raiser.

Their lavish lifestyle over the last few weeks though must not be allowed to get in the way of their preparations though, said Red Dragons skipper Luke Young.

“We can’t have any excuses - we can’t use the America trip as an excuse,” Young told BBC Sport Wales. “It would be easy to use the excuse that we only got back a week ago but I know as a group we’re not going to be using that as an excuse.

“We’ve got to use it as a bonus and as a stepping stone to come back and hit the ground running.

“We’ll be fully ready to go come three o’clock on Saturday.”

Young, who joined the club in 2018, admitted there were some tough times for Wrexham prior to their Hollywood owners taking over in 2021, but after making it back into League Two courtesy of winning the National League, the club wants to be battling at the sharp end again.

He continued: “People were even thinking were we ever going to get out of this league after so many years and it was a relief to finally do that.

“We’re back in the EFL and we want more. We want to be up there this season as well.

“We have the confidence, the drive and the ambition to certainly do that.”