Norwich City starlet Max Aarons has confessed he didn’t understand the enormity of the coronavirus pandemic until the Premier League was suspended.
The Canaries full-back revealed that City’s squad didn’t find out about the postponement until the outcome of the initial Premier League meeting was made public.
City were due to face Southampton at Carrow Road earlier this month but that game was called off due to concerns over the outbreak, with domestic football in England suspended until April 30 at the earliest.
“It’s crazy. Obviously, this started a while back but we never actually thought that it would come to stopping sports.
“We knew that it was happening and the virus was around but until sports actually stopped, our games got called off and the season got put on hold, that’s when it actually hit home to me that it was really serious,” he told the Byline podcast.
“Nobody wants to stop sports but this is really serious and if that’s what we have to do in terms of combating the virus then so be it.”
Following the news that Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta and Chelsea forward Callum Hudson-Odoi had tested positive for COVID-19, the Premier League convened an emergency meeting and suspended the competition until April.
“There hadn’t been damaging affects so for us, we carried on recovering as normal and building the week.
“We were supposed to play Southampton on the Saturday and it was only when, sadly, Mikel Arteta and Callum got diagnosed with coronavirus that we realised it was having a direct affect on the Premier League.
“That Friday we were going out to train and we didn’t know whether we were going to have a game. When we came in from training, everything had been called off but it was definitely the right decision.”
Aarons’ focus has now turned to retaining his fitness to ensure he is ready to resume when the season continues.
“I think when the season does resume, people will be given a few weeks to build back up to fitness,” he added. “That’s why I’m looking at it like that, because as soon as we’re called to be back in, we’ve got to be sharp and ready to go.
“When the season does resume, we’ve got nine games left to try and stay in the Premier League.”
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