Uganda coach Johnny McKinstry has said he expects international football to take a back seat to the domestic game as leagues across the world try to find an opportune time to complete their seasons.
The majority of leagues across the world have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it is unclear when – or even if – they will resume.
“I think the expectation, as is right, is that when football comes back it will be club football that comes in straight away,” Northern Irishman McKinstry told BBC’s Newsday programme.
“Even though in March, we were approaching an international window, the first thing that comes back online will be club football.”
The Cranes coach had been preparing his locally based players for the Africa Nations Championship which had been due to take place later this month before that was postponed.
Since Covid-19 has become a worldwide issue, McKinstry has been in regular contact with his players.
“For us really, it’s playing a supplementary support role because the majority of players are getting programmes with their clubs and their clubs are monitoring them really closely,” he said.
“We’re really there as a supplementary support to see if there’s anything in addition we can do with the players. We try to be in contact with all of them at least once a week to try and see how their own programs are doing and the situation in their own country.”
In the meantime, McKinstry has set his players a challenge to ensure they’re all keeping as fit as they say they are: how many push up can they do in the 30 seconds?
“I’d been in touch with everyone over the course of last week and as is natural, all the players are giving a five star review back in terms of saying ‘yes, we’re well on top of everything, we’re doing well at home.’ And I thought, well I can’t believe everyone is at five stars, there’s always one or two people who are you doing a little bit less than they should so we thought, if everyone’s in such great shape, let’s see.”
So far a few of his players have responded to McKinstry’s challenge.
Source:BBC
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