DEAN Ryan is taking his Warriors squad to the state-of-the-art Browns Sports and Leisure Club in Portugal next week for a warm-weather training camp.

The luxury facility in Vilamoura has often been used as a European base by many top sporting teams and Warriors will train there ahead of next Saturday’s LV= Cup trip to Sale Sharks (2pm).

Worcester are second in their group behind Bath and Ryan believes his squad will benefit hugely from a team-building week on the continent.

Due to waterlogged training pitches at Sixways, the players have been training at the University of Worcester recently, but they will now embark on the mini-break in a bid to reinvigorate a beleaguered squad.

Ryan said: “We are going to Portugal, one just to guarantee services as we haven’t had full access to facilities for two weeks now because of the weather conditions and, two, a mid-season camp will help to get as many people fit as possible and get us in the best condition we can be for the remainder of the season.

“We will have a guaranteed surface to train on for four or five days and the opportunity to try to freshen the squad up in conditions where it is not blowing a gale and raining. We targeted this next month as a pinch point and we want to do everything we can to ensure our preparation is right.

“Hopefully, we can then come back feeling confident we have given ourselves the best chance of having a crack at it.”

On the Browns website, the complex is described as a ‘designed and constructed to provide excellent training, accommodation and support conditions to all athletes from grass route teams to national professional teams in a safe and secure yet relaxed environment’.

The Warriors director of rugby added: “Everyone will say we are going to Portugal on some sort of holiday, but these guys are in at half-seven every morning and they work really, really hard.

“This place is not perceived as a holiday camp, it is about anything that can be done to aid performance, helping the squad and getting better.

“We haven’t been on a grass pitch for two-and-a-half weeks – that’s the reality of it – and we have to play on the best surfaces to give ourselves the best chance of being in the right place.

“It’s not just about running around on a field, though, because things such as team building are as important as anything else.

“If people feel in a better place, then they perform better – that is fact – but it is not all about being a holiday, it is about combining all those things.

“If we get a chance to be a little bit tighter as a team, to improve fitness, to work on a few things in dry conditions and on a decent surface, then that gives us the best chance of coming back in good shape.”