Life is currently 'slightly surreal' for footballers admits Peterborough United defender Thompson

The sport is in shut down until the end of April at the earliest due the coronavirus pandemic, and Thompson admits it has been quite a change in lifestyle for him and his Peterborough United team-mates.

Footballers are used to having their lives mapped out for them. whether it be training or match days, but now they are having to fend for themselves, and Thompson admits: “It has been very strange, and slightly surreal in a sense that there is no structure.

“As footballers, we kind of have that structure in our lives, and to be on an enforced lockdown is very strange, but we are cracking on with things.

“We have been sent fitness programmes by the coaching staff, and we know our roles and what we have to do to keep ourselves fit during this time.

“So we will be fully prepared when we get back in.”

And the former Portsmouth man admitted there is no hiding place from the club’s coaching and fitness staff.

“Previously it was always just a heart-rate monitor that the fitness coach could monitor and see, but this time Craig (Smith, fitness & conditioning coach) has said to us ‘send your session across’,” revealed the 29-year-old defender.

“That has all of your data on there, the distance you have covered and they are keeping a very close eye on things.

“It is strange in that when we come back we will be straight into games again, and usually you have got sort of six weeks to get back up to speed again, so it is slightly different in that sense.”

Thompson went into the enforced break nursing a muscle strain picked up in the win over Pompey on March 7, and he says he and the club’s other injured players are at least well on the mend.

“Although this lockdown is not ideal, it has enabled us to get back fully fit,” he said.

“It means that when we get back in, whenever that may be, we will certainly have all those injuries all cleared up with people ready to go.”

When it will be that football is ready to go again is anybody’s guess.

It is going to be May at the very earliest, although it could be even later than that, and Thompson says it is imperative that coronavirus is conquered before the sporting world thinks about kicking back into gear.

“When this all started I was quite sceptical about it,” admitted the defender.

“I thought it was along the lines of the ‘flu, we would all get through it, and it certainly wouldn’t come to what it has now.

“It is only listening daily, and seeing on the news the problems it has caused, then you realise football pales into insignificance.

“You see the daily death toll around the globe and it is quite scary.

“Of course we are drilled to play football every single day and we love that, but it is irrelevant really when it comes to the bigger scale of things.”