MANILA, Philippines – As the world of sports is put into an unwanted hiatus, Azkals goalkeeper Neil Etheridge is likewise affected by the lockdown in the United Kingdom. 

Playing for Cardiff City in The Championship, Etheridge needs to keep his fitness level up in order to stay on track of bringing the Bluebirds higher than a 9th place finish. 

After becoming the first Southeast Asian to play in the Premier League in 2018, Etheridge and Cardiff were relegated back to the first-tier tournament of the English Football League. (READ: With or without Cardiff, Etheridge eyes Premier League return)

Etheridge shares how he’s coping with the lockdown in a recent Instagram Live chat with former Azkals captain Phil Younghusband: 

Setting up a home gym

Cardiff City was able to provide Etheridge and the rest of the team a bike and some gym equipment in order for them to continue conditioning training while they can’t go on the pitch. (Adulting 101: How to set up a home gym)

The keeper managed to set up a home gym for himself in his garage, and is grateful that he can continue training like an elite athlete as the league’s resumption may come anytime. 

“It is similar to like an offseason program to be honest. Like I was saying, it’s one of those where at the start, we didn’t want to come back, so it was like intense to keep yourself fit because we could be back in a week’s time and you need to be ready because games will come quick and fast,” Etheridge told the former Azkals captain in the chat. 

However, Etheridge is also expecting the restart to be stressful, so he’s trying not to go all-out with his home workouts. 

“When we do go back, you’ll have game after game after game, and it would be a short period of the offseason. They will go straight back into next season,” explained Etheridge. 

“So don’t do too much now, you’ll burn yourself out, so it’s kind of at the moment it’s finding that balance of doing a bit, but not getting too carried away.” 

Minimizing exposure to news 

Etheridge and his fiancee Alexandra Solera only watch the news once a day to prevent themselves from getting overwhelmed with real-life stories about the coronavirus. 

“We can’t be consumed by this. If we get consumed by this mentally, it’s gonna be really tough so we kind of watch the 4pm news here which is the live [coronavirus] update from the government. But apart from that we kind of just stay away from it,” said Etheridge. 

The 30-year-old football player, though, is grateful that he doesn’t know anyone personally who has become a victim of the virus. 

But he understands how the requirement to isolate yourself becomes a “mental battle” for those infected, as well as their families. 

“It’s a mental battle for a lot of people, because you can’t even go and comfort the families or anything like that. [We can only] FaceTime or whatever it may be, which is not really a human factor, but it’s the best we can do right now,” said Etheridge. 

Being grateful for your community 

Etheridge says that he is lucky to be in a big, healthy community with a lot of helpful people he can reach out to for simple favors like buying groceries. 

“So one of our neighbors does the online shopping. We just piggyback onto their back. We send them a list of [what we want in the shop],” said Etheridge. 

The Fil-British keeper makes sure that he gets to keep in touch with the people around him as it becomes a way of supporting one another in these difficult times. 

“It’s really hard. [I’ve] spoken to a lot of people who have tried to speak to people in your community. And, you know, I’m fortunate because like I’ve said the house, and where we live, my surroundings, but other people who are in in smaller places, and they can’t just go outside. It must be really, really tough.” 

Making decisions at the right time 

Although Etheridge is doing well, he faces a problem with regards to his plan of getting married to Solera in June. 

But the footballer advises to wait for the right time to make decisions, especially for couples who find themselves in the same situation as them. 

“At the moment we haven’t made any real plans. We will always have backup plans, but we haven’t made a decision yet,” said Etheridge. 

The couple is regularly in contact with their wedding planner as well to help them make new arrangements with the venues and other wedding services. 

For Etheridge, he would rather hold a wedding that they imagined it to be rather than a half-hearted one because of the need to avoid big gatherings. 

“I think we both along the same lines of what we’re planning to do. But yeah, ultimately, we’ll just wait for a couple more weeks and then we’ll see what happens but I think we both know that more than likely, it will be postponed.” – Rappler.com