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Fitness, focus, frustration: life in lockdown for Europe's footballers

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AFP Madrid
Last Updated : Mar 22 2020 | 5:18 PM IST

Juventus midfielder Sami Khedira is learning to play the piano, La Liga clubs are facing off on playstation and Atalanta's Robin Gosens has been revising for exams in psychology.

Yet as thousands of footballers, from the highest levels to the lower leagues, remain on lockdown while coronavirus spreads across Europe, all of them are tasked with keeping themselves fit, as well as entertained.

"Everyone needs to be ready so that when the health advice says resume, we can resume straight away," Emmanuel Orhant, medical director of the French Football Federation (FFF), told AFP.

Nobody knows when that will be and with the global death toll from coronavirus passing 13,000 on Saturday, there is little appetite yet even to address the question.

But within football, the absence of a deadline only enhances the sense of urgency. In theory, the season could restart in a matter of weeks and clubs are determined to be ready.

"Players may even need to get their summer break in now," Brighton striker Glenn Murray told AFP.

"We might finish the 2019/20 season and then roll into 2020/21 without any break at all."
Asked if the players would accept that scenario, Murray said: "We don't have any choice."
"It is up to them to take it."
-- Self discipline --
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"Players are human beings too and at the moment they're very frustrated."
"You try to do other things but there's only so much Netflix you can watch."
Philippe Piat, president of FIFPro, which represents professional players worldwide, told AFP: "The doctors say 15 days off needs 15 days of training so what will it take if there are three weeks off? They were clear: don't be surprised if there are injuries."

Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content

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First Published: Mar 22 2020 | 5:18 PM IST

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