FILIPE Morais wants to show City fans that less can mean a whole lot more after putting his injury woes behind him.

The Portuguese winger is at the lightest weight he has ever been in pre-season and club fitness chief Nick Allamby believes he can still shed a bit more by August 8.

Morais reckons his new streamline look will help him rediscover the exciting form that made him such a key weapon for the Bantams during their peak period last term.

He said: “I’ve never come back to pre-season this light. I played all last season at 79 kilos, which is the lowest I’ve been, and I was exactly the same when I returned.

“I feel great and Nick wants me to get down further. He wants me to play at a lighter weight and still be as explosive.

“I’ve probably not been in this sort of shape since I was 17.

“I’ve never been as fit as I am in this pre-season and yet I’m probably behind some of the others. The level of fitness in the squad is that high.

“It’s so important. You can’t live the way you live ten years ago – you have to watch everything you eat.

“Nick’s great at that, monitoring my diet and giving me good advice. I need to live right because I’m not someone who’s naturally fit, so that’s brilliant.

“I’m a winger, I need to be box to box. My game is high energy, I like defending in people’s faces and I like to attack as well.

“I need that high level of fitness. I had that last year when I was injury free and I want to get back to that and even better.”

Morais is over the knee problems that affected the final three months of the campaign. The injury he suffered in a collision at Leyton Orient curtailed his effectiveness at a time when City needed him most.

“It killed me,” he admitted. “We had a couple more injuries as well and it was so hard because we were in such a good place.

“The gaffer needed certain players and I was trying to play through it but it just wasn’t right.

“I couldn’t really cross properly or change direction as quick as I wanted.

“I just became a standard player. Everything I had as an extra, I couldn’t do.

“That was so frustrating playing and not being able to do everything I wanted to.

“They were huge games, like the Reading ones, and you just didn’t want to miss them.

“The first time I did it, it was a significant tear and I came back and played in ten days – which was mental.

“But it was my decision. They didn’t make me, I pushed it because I wanted to play.

“I don’t have any regrets. I just wish I could have done a bit more.”

Morais was not alone among the walking wound. Looking back now, he believes that was the reason City narrowly missed out on the top six rather than any FA Cup distraction.

He said: “I don’t think it was the amount of games because we’re a really fit group.

“But we had players playing through injury like Dava (Andrew Davies), me and a few others. Andy Halliday had some great games and then drifted out because he was carrying knocks.

“You can’t publicise all the injuries but a lot of players were playing like that.

“You’ve got to do that a lot of the time but they were a little bit more serious so it was hard to get through those games, especially such big games when you needed to be 110 per cent.

“But my knee’s absolutely fine now and I’ve never felt better. I just can’t wait to get started.”