Newcastle defender Steven Taylor is determined to come back from his first break from football for three years better than ever.
The 22-year-old England Under-21 captain has been rested, along with club-mate James Milner, by international manager Stuart Pearce at the end of a tough season at St James' Park.
Taylor and Milner have spent much of the last two summers representing their country and suffered the heartache of a penalty shoot-out defeat in the European Championship semi-finals 12 months ago.
The defender, in particular, admits he is looking forward to a break after playing with a niggling ankle problem for the last few weeks of a difficult campaign.
Taylor said: "Last summer I had a long week off and then I was back into pre-season.
"It will be nice to get six weeks off. There's no football over the summer, so I can relax.
"I can come back fresh and ready for next season."
The 2008-09 campaign will be the last of Taylor's current contract with talks dating back more than a year having failed to reach a conclusion agreeable to both parties.
Agent Leon Angel held talks with vice-president (player recruitment) Tony Jimenez last week, although there has been no word since on how they went.
Manager Kevin Keegan has expressed his hopes that the club will tie up the futures of both Taylor and captain Michael Owen, who is also out of contract at the end of next season.
However, with owner Mike Ashley and chairman Chris Mort having indicated the bumper wage packets which have lured some of the club's recent signings to Tyneside and kept them there could be a thing of the past, the timing is not good.
But Peter Ramage's departure for QPR and the release of Senegal international Lamine Diatta could work in Taylor's favour.
Keegan and the Magpies hierarchy discussed their summer recruitment plans when the 57-year-old at a meeting in London last Friday but they are continuing to work on the team off the pitch as well as on it with former England caretaker boss Peter Taylor confirming he has discussed a possible position at St James' Park.
Meanwhile, Keegan has told England Under-19 international Andy Carroll not to get carried away by his first Premier League start in the final day defeat at Everton.
The 19-year-old, who will head off to represent his country in a tournament in Belarus next week, was delighted to get his chance but Keegan warned: "He has got a lot to learn, but the things he needs to learn, both on the pitch and on the training ground, I think he can learn.
"He is a long way from the finished article, but he had a taste of it.
"Let's hope he goes away on a holiday thinking he's got one rung up on a very long ladder, and not that he's hit the big time, because that's all he has done."
