WEB EXCLUSIVE – McCann feeling 'rejuvenated' after break
McCann was away in Albania with Northern Ireland during the first week and then got 70 minutes under his belt in the reserves disappointing 5-0 defeat against Leicester this week.
After starting three of United's last four games on the substitutes bench, McCann was delighted to play two games rather than just train for two weeks.
And the 29-year-old is hoping the break has set him up for a strong finish to the season with United.
"Hopefully the couple of weeks away from the club will have rejuvenated me a bit and given me a little boost," McCann told www.sportscunny.co.uk ahead of this weekend's trip to Ipswich Town.
"I had the game (with Northern Ireland) and then the game with the reserves when I played about 70 minutes.
"But I would rather play in those games than train, I think you get more benefit.
"I've said a couple of times that I think I had a little dip in form last month.
"But sometimes getting away from the club for a while gives you a little boost and it has done me the world of good.
"Hopefully that will get me back in the first team and I can get on with trying to help this club stay where I think it belongs, in the Championship."
The break wasn't the happiest for McCann however.
The former Cheltenham Town man played 90 minutes of his country's shock 1-0 loss in Albania.
He then played in a team packed with fellow first-team regulars in the reserves' defeat to a youthful Leicester side.
"I'm sure the lads will be champing at the bit for a game but it's not been that much of a break for me," McCann added.
"Especially in Albania, which took a lot out of everybody.
"The trip was okay, the condition of the pitch was well documented but we can't blame the way we played out there on the pitch.
"To a man, everybody was appalling to be honest and at the end of the day they just dealt with the pitch better than us which was why they won the game.
"The reserve result was disappointing as well, but at the end of the day it was just a reserve game and I was just glad it wasn't a first-team game!"
Read much more from McCann, Joe Murphy and Nigel Adkins with the usual five pages of Matchday preview in Friday's Scunthorpe Telegraph.
Grant McCann
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