Mowing the lawn, playing soccer with your dog, turning on the TV. Soccer players around Europe are struggling to fill the “big void” created by the COVID-19 shutdown and many are writing about the unfamiliar experience on social media.
Some have already come to the conclusion “there is nothing to do.”
Real Madrid players have been training at home, where most of them already had facilities and equipment.
Captain Sergio Ramos posted a video on Instagram showing him sprinting on a treadmill.
Marco Asensio, who suffered a knee injury last year, posted a video showing that he was continuing his recovery program in his garden.
However, even for players used to working out, there is a limit.
“I’m here, in my garden, there’s nothing to do,” Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema said in a video on social media where he appeared alongside his dog, earning him a comparison with Will Smith in the movie I Am Legend.
In Italy, Juventus midfielder Douglas Costa filmed himself practicing his dribbling in the back garden, with his dog struggling to fill the role of defender.
Alexis Sanchez, on loan at Inter, has two golden retrievers and a much bigger garden, but he comfortably outplayed them in a video he put up online.
He also posted photographs of himself topless, gathering chopped wood.
Jessica Melena, the wife of Ciro Immobile, posted a cookery video, showing the SS Lazio striker waving a spatula and mixing a cake while she coached him.
Immobile posted a video in which he juggled toys with his feet.
SSC Napoli’s Belgian forward Dries Mertens posted pictures of a work out with a bottle of red wine.
In France, Angers SCO defender Romain Thomas said that his daily routine involved jogging, gardening and watching reality TV, while he has also talked to his teammates.
“We said to each other: ‘Look, it’s a beautiful day, it’s time to mow.’ So I mowed the lawn in the garden, it gives me time to think about something else,” Thomas said.
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