Hearts star Wallace turns to boxer McEwan in his quest to seek optimum fitness

Lee Wallace is at Clovenstone Amateur Boxing Club in Wester Hailes - a somewhat unusual setting for interviewing a footballer - ready for conditioning work to hand him an advantage for the season ahead.

To employ football parlance, he's out to beast it.

With thighs like tree trunks, he is now focused on improving upper body strength and has enlisted Craig McEwan, Edinburgh's undefeated professional middleweight, as his own personal trainer.

He's done the scrawny adolescent bit after debuting for Hearts five years ago as a skinny, albeit extremely talented, 17-year-old.

He is now 22 and firmly established as Scotland's international left-back for the 2012 European Championship qualifying campaign. So it's time to bulk up.

McEwan's father, Rab, owns the boxing club and has been a close friend of Wallace's parents since childhood.

It was he who initially invited the player to train there and, before long, Wallace was under the wing of McEwan Jnr, who is preparing to fly back to his Los Angeles base to fight Danny Perez later this month.

The surroundings at the recently-renovated gym are distinctly humble compared with Wallace's daily workplace, Hearts' sumptuous Riccarton training complex located just three miles along the road.

Yet the smell of honest sweat and toil serves a vital purpose. It reminds anyone who enters of the demands of boxing. Local aspiring fighters arrive knowing McEwan and Wallace will likely be there and are keen to hear the former's tales of training alonside world-renowned boxers like Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather and Edison Miranda.

Wallace is equally intrigued, for he is benefiting directly from the expertise gleaned by McEwan.

He said: "That's exactly what I'm after. Craig has an unbelievable record in the boxing industry and I can only look up to that.

"Through listening to him and his dad when I'm up here, that's the only way you can improve.

"I love boxing. I'm a footballer but boxing is a great sport and a great way to keep your fitness up. It's probably the sport I love most other than football.

"It was all football, football, football for me at school. It's not until the last four or five years that I've really got into the boxing.

"I'm learning from a guy who trains with people like Pacquiao and Mayweather. We've done a few sessions together now and Craig's breezing through it, while I'm struggling.

"He's been doing this since he was seven years old, so obviously I'm going to find it hard. The calibre of boxers Craig has been working with has been great for him.

"There's a huge amount of stamina involved. I'd say boxing training is one of the hardest forms of fitness there is.

"We are just getting into pre-season with Hearts now so time will tell on how it goes with the football, but I've certainly been working really hard over the last few weeks and I'm feeling the benefit of it."

Hitting the ground running is something many players strive to do when pre-season training is due to begin, but few have the wherewithal to call upon a professional boxer for assistance.

"Both our families grew up together in Gracemount and have known each other for years," explained Wallace. "I've come up here a few times and trained with Rab.

"Recently Craig has been training me and I've found it really helpful. It's always good to get back into shape when you've been on holiday and resting.

"I like to keep myself ticking over and there's no better way to do it that coming up here."

Wallace intends to continue frequenting the Clovenstone club throughout the forthcoming season.

Welcoming a high-profile professional footballer to the venue has ensured an uplifting effect on its members and, although McEwan's footballing allegiances lie at Easter Road, he is fully appreciative of the association with a Hearts player. "My dad's got a lot of young kids in his club and they tend to look up to me," said McEwan.

"To see Lee coming in has made the place stowed out," he says. "They're all saying, 'Lee Wallace trains here as well. Are there any more Hearts players coming?'

"My dad's been trying to persuade Lee to get Jim Jefferies down here and put the whole team through a session.

"It's been great for me to be associated with Lee and with Hearts. I'm a Hibs supporter but it's good to be involved with both sides. I'm not a mental Hibby, I'm from Edinburgh and I think it's good to be associated with Hearts and not have too bitter a rivalry.

"I think Lee will continue coming here for training throughout the season. Obviously he's away to Italy with Hearts this weekend for pre-season training and he'll be away with Scotland at times, but I think he intends to keep ticking over here.

"He can do a little bit, punching the bag and working the pads and the things he's been doing for the last few weeks. It's good for our boxing club to have him here. People will see him playing week in, week out during the season and then they can come here and see him train during the week."

McEwan, though, won't be around much longer. Unbeaten in 18 fights since turning professional, he tops the bill on 23 July at the Pechanga Casino in California in a ten-round contest against 33-year-old Perez.

His opponent has lost seven of his 41 bouts but has yet to be knocked out. McEwan is quietly confident.

A quick Youtube search produces footage of the Scot working out at the Goosen Gym in Van Nuys, California, under the guidance of Ricky Funez. His principal trainer is the former lightweight Freddie Roach and, upon touching down in LA, McEwan will head straight to Roach's Wild Card Boxing Club for some intense preparations.

"I was supposed to fight on 31 July, then it was brought forward to 23 July. I've kept myself ticking over here but the reason I live in America is because of the sparring opportunities. You get people from everywhere coming in and I'm rubbing shoulders with Pacquiao, Mayweather and all the stars. Preparations are going well, I've been using the hills here in Edinburgh for training because LA is a bit flat. When I get back there I'll go into a week of solid sparring, so I'll be well prepared."

Thanks to the interventions of the McEwans, Wallace should be able to say likewise when the SPL season begins on 14 August...