OLLIE RATHBONE never takes for granted having the chance to travel the world and play for Wrexham.
The midfielder joined the Reds in August 2024 from Rotherham United having started his career in the youth ranks of Manchester United before spending time with Rochdale.
A key player since arriving at The Racecourse, Rathbone is continuing to prepare for the new Championship campaign out in America, playing against Leeds United, Liverpool and Sunderland.
Wrexham opened pre-season by taking on Wisła Kraków in Poland before facing Manchester United in Helsinki. And then they kicked off their States tour with a 3-2 win over Leeds.
This is the third time that Phil Parkinson’s men have gone to the States on a pre-season tour - they jetted off Down Under last summer - to play high-profile friendlies and Rathbone appreciates having the opportunity.
“Another incredible experience and something I am very excited for,” said the 29-year-old. “This opportunity to travel the world representing this football club is a huge honour and something I don’t take for granted.
“That’s the benefit of having these quite high-profile friendlies. It makes you raise your game a little bit, you know that you can’t really afford to kind of coast through, so it does bring the intensity up to where it needs to be going into the season.
“Not necessarily the result (that is important) but you want to give a good account of yourself individually and for the team.”
Wrexham returned for pre-season training three weeks ago and the goalless draw against Kraków was followed by a 1-0 win over United in Finland.
“It’s been a really productive couple of weeks. The squad’s in a really good place, spirits are really high and training’s been going really well so I can’t complain,” said Rathbone.
Rathbone suffered a serious ankle injury in the clash against Sydney last summer, meaning he missed the start of the season.
But after making his first appearance in the league as a late substitute in the 2-2 draw at home to Watford in mid-December, when he scored a late equaliser, he went on to feature in every Championship game for the rest of the season and he weighed in with eight goals.
“The injury was a nightmare, far from ideal, but the resilience that I’ve got, especially from my time at Man United, helped me in that department,” he said.
“It was something that I didn’t plan for, but something that I knew that I’d just have to work really hard and trust myself that I’d be able to get back into the team.
“I featured in every game (when I came back) which I was really proud of.
“It is difficult to get your rhythm when you have an injury and a few little niggles after that so I was really pleased with that.
“Hopefully I get that availability much higher this year and then kick-on.”
Wrexham finished seventh, only missing out on a play-off spot by two points, after drawing 2-2 against high-flying Middlesbrough on the final day of the season.
The Reds emerged as promotion contenders following a slow start and Rathbone is looking to pick up where they left off in 2026-27.
“If you look back at last season, our form from the Christmas period onwards was promotion form, definitely play-off form,” he added.
“That first quarter of the season was probably just the team gelling together, kind of working out where we are as a group.
“Compared to this time last year, we know that we’re at that level now, so hopefully we will be able to start as we left off.
“We know what the league’s like so hopefully we’ll be in a position to get off to a better start.”