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Eyes on De Bolle: Lucas looking forward to Elche encounter
Written by Luke Vinton
Newcastle United Under-21s take on Elche CF in their opening pre-season friendly ahead of the 2022/23 campaign, with Lucas De Bolle relishing the prospect of facing the La Liga outfit.
The young Magpies flew out to Spain on Tuesday prior to a six-day warm weather training camp in Pinatar and will face Elche on Saturday, 16th July at La Finca Resort (kick-off 7pm local time).
De Bolle, who received an international call-up to the Scotland under-21 squad in March 2022, expressed his delight for the new season to commence with a test against senior opposition.
"We're really excited for our first game of pre-season and this whole campaign," the 19-year-old central midfielder told nufc.co.uk. "We're looking to set the tone, especially against a very, good side who finished 13th in La Liga last season and it should be a good experience.
"In this heat, it will be good for us physically and really test the group to see where our fitness levels are at ahead of the new season.
"We've worked on many thing this week such as team spirit, games on and off the pitch while doing lots of running, working on our shape, tactics and it's been very challenging in this heat.
"After ten minutes of training in the warm weather, you get a bit tired but you need to keep your concentration for the whole session and push yourself."
Born in Edinburgh to a Belgian father and English mother, De Bolle featured on Newcastle's first-team bench for four of the Magpies' Premier League fixtures last term.
A former Wallsend Boys Club product before joining United's youth set-up at the age of 13, De Bolle revealed he was pleased with his progress last term and bids to gain further experience at senior level with his boyhood club.
"It was a positive one last season," he added. "It started a bit slowly due to injury so it took a while to get into the team. However, from November onwards, I rarely missed a game and was given the opportunity to go up to the first-team and featured on the bench four times.
"That experience was huge for me, especially the first game on the bench at St. James' Park against Aston Villa.
"I was warming up in front of 52,000 fans and then seeing what the expectations are of the first-team squad when they play, how the manager talks in the changing room and everybody's desire to win.
"It gives me a taste to try and get more opportunities like that in the future. Once you have that experience, it's a proud moment for yourself and your family so you just want to keep doing it and make sure it happens every week."