OXFORD United’s players will learn a lot about each other on their pre-season training camp, says John Mousinho.

The U’s head to Bournemouth tomorrow as they continue to prepare for their first Sky Bet League One game at Cambridge United on Saturday, August 7.

United will train in nearby Wimborne before returning on Thursday, in time for their first pre-season friendly at Oxford City the following evening.

The trip was initially a back-up to their preferred option of going to Spain, which fell through because of the restrictions involving international travel.

But U’s captain Mousinho, a veteran of tours to Ireland and Portugal in 2018 and 2019 respectively, knows how beneficial pre-season camps can be regardless of the location.

He said: “There’s a lot of advantages to going away.

“First and foremost you can fit in three sessions a day and all of a sudden you’re spending every minute of every day with the squad.

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“There’s a lot to be said for the team bonding that can occur.

“You’re going to have different conversations, you’re going to be grouped with different people in a different environment.

“It’s brilliant from a team perspective.

“When you do these trips there’s such a huge amount of hard work that goes into them, so it bonds you as a team as well.

“It’s going to be very good to see Billy (Bodin) and Ryan (Williams) every day and get them integrated.

“Those trips have served us really well in the past and I think it’ll be a good build-up to the games that are starting next week.”

Mousinho was not risked in an intra-squad 11-a-side match yesterday, which rounded off the first full week of United’s pre-season.

The U’s skipper and Sam Long took part in the warm-ups but were not risked for the game itself as they continue to recover from injuries.

Marcus McGuane was involved, though, as were two trialists who have been training with the squad.

Karl Robinson told United’s official website: “Having a game was more about breaking things up than anything else but it was still good to see players competing and communicating.

“There were plenty of things to take away from the game itself.

“But the main thing is we have come through the first week with no injuries, players coming back from previous injuries have done well, we have looked at a couple of trialists and the new lads have become part of the group already.

“Now we get away for a week, we keep working hard, and then have a series of friendlies that we are really looking forward to.”