SEAN Dyche has played down fears over the state of the pitch at the Karaiskakis Stadium despite admitting the playing surface wasn't great.

The Clarets were forced to train at the Nea Smyrni Stadium, the home ground of Greek Super League side Panionios, on Wednesday night.

Visiting teams are normally allowed to train at the home of the opposition the night before a European tie, but Olympiakos, Burnley's opponents in their Europa League play-off, applied to UEFA for permission to keep the Clarets off the pitch.

That is due to concerns over the patchy nature of the surface and Dyche admitted it was going to pose some problems on match night.

“It’s not great, but we knew that before we came. We were made aware that we’d have to train on an alternative surface, which they provided which is equally not that great either, but useable," the Clarets chief said.

“But it was only to get the travel out of their legs. We’ll have a light session in the morning, but obviously not here.

“Most Premier League and Championship clubs have surfaces which are usually in very good condition, so we are a little bit spoilt.

“This will be interesting to see how it plays. Some of our players are well travelled and I’ve played on some pitches in my time which weren’t as good as this one.”

A boiling hot summer in Athens has led to issues over pitches, with the surface at the Nea Smyrni Stadium equally uneven and patchy.

But Dyche insists his players will shake off any concerns at the Karaiskakis Stadium tomorrow night.

"It’s not ideal, but to be fair I’m sure the club don’t want it to be like this," he said.

"We’re not too worried about it. It’s a challenge, but this whole competition is a challenge.

"We’ve got a good mentality at Burnley. We are humble enough to know what we are.

"We’ve moved forward, but we are not the real deal. We have to work for everything we get and we will have to do that again on this occasion."