Kevin Sinfield opens up on his ‘brutal’ training regime and Rob Burrow emotion

Kevin Sinfield has opened up on his ‘brutal’ training regime as he readies himself for his latest charity challenge. The former Leeds Rhinos man will be hitting the streets once more next month in his fifth annual challenge in support of MND charities.

This time Sinfield will be running 50km a day over seven days in seven different regions of the country. Each day will be spilt up into 7km chunks, with day one starting in Liverpool and finishing in Wrexham. He’ll also run in the South West, Belfast, Glasgow, Hull, Leicester and Manchester, with the challenge ending in Saddleworth.

Sinfield has raised around £16m for the MND community since Rob Burrow was initially diagnosed with the disease in 2019. However, with Burrow passing away earlier this year, this will be the first challenge Sinfield will have done without the support of his former teammate.

The 44-year-old is determined to do Burrow proud once again, though, and he’s put himself through a gruelling training programme in order to ensure he can do just that.

“Rob’s been a part of the first four challenges. To have him not around this time is pretty tough,” Sinfield said, per Sky Sports.

“I won’t be getting his text messages on an evening. I’m not quite sure how I’ll be emotionally. I’ll probably find out when we’re in the thick of it and it’s pretty dark out there.

“It means a lot to me that we represent him and his family in the right way. He’ll make me smile, I know that.

“I don’t want this to be sad. We’ve lost a great man, but he’ll want us to rip into this and have a smile on our face and do it justice, do him justice.”

He added: “They don’t get any easier, they just don’t. The training has been brutal and that’s the bit people don’t see.

“I run all year but the last 11 and a half weeks have been really, really difficult and they need to be because I can’t expect to turn up on the start line and just be able to run it.

“I hate running, I don’t even like running and I’m asthmatic, so if you put all that together it’s not a great combination.”