Fulham captain Tom Cairney has admitted that he feels like he has ‘no purpose’ after football was postponed due to the coronavirus crisis.
Cairney spoke candidly about how he felt his life had lost all its structure, with no matches to play and clubs having instructed players to stay at home and not come in for training as part of wider measures to try to slow infection rates of the virus.
The 29-year-old midfielder also admitted that, despite Fulham having ‘sent through a programme about a week ago’, he was not getting up at a specific time and was missing scheduled meals.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Cairney said the biggest struggle he has experienced during the lockdown is ‘the timings’.
‘We’re so used to getting up at 9, get an omelette at half nine, get some treatment at 10, outside at half 10,’ he said.
‘It’s that bit that’s the big change. I haven’t got a time to get up, I don’t eat regularly, I miss meals.
‘You’re always just preparing for the next game or the next training session. When it all gets taken away you have no purpose.
‘It’s a really weird feeling.’
Until the season was postponed, Cairney had helped Fulham to third place in the Championship table, six points behind the automatic promotion slots.
The league is scheduled to resume on May 2, with Fulham due to play at Wigan, but a resumption on that date looks increasingly unlikely.
The peak of the epidemic in the United Kingdom is forecast to be in June and ever stricter measures are being taken by the government to increase social distancing, which is meant to try and slow the progress of the virus.
