Football’s return from enforced layoff brings totally new type of stress | Paul MacInnes

The psychological hurdle players have to clear to be ready after the Covid-19 lockdown may be as tricky as any other challenge

The number of pieces that need to be in place for football to return can be difficult to keep in mind. Testing, sterile environments, quarantine locations, suitability of venues, the scheduling of events, creating an atmosphere in an empty stadium. Each has its own difficulties, which impinge on others. But the most complex challenge of all may be the one players have to undertake themselves.

The assertive aspect of sports psychology – visualising goals, excluding doubt – is understood but last week the international players’ union, Fifpro, reported an increase in depression during lockdown. The former Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro, in assessing players’ condition, described people we often imagine to be unstoppable machines as “vulnerable”. The anxieties provoked by Covid-19 have inveigled their way into the lives of athletes just as much as they have the rest of us.

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