IT’S TORTURE
Home-schooling had West Ham star tearing out his hair in exasperation
MICHAIL ANTONIO will never take teachers for granted again – after a home-schooling lockdown that he described as sheer “torture”.
The 30-year-old West Ham forward has had his share of ups and downs during the Covid-19 crisis.
In March, Antonio’s father died after a long illness and then at the weekend came the arrival of his fourth child.
And in between all that there was home-schooling his other three children, which the Hammers star has admitted had him pulling his hair out.
West Ham restart their season on Saturday when David Moyes’ team face Wolves at the London Stadium.
And they are in desperate need of maximum points to claw themselves away from the Premier League relegation zone.
Antonio says he will be mightily relieved just to get out on a football pitch again. “I have got three kids and my wife was pregnant until she had a baby on Sunday so it was difficult home-schooling and getting the time to go for runs,” he explained.
“But knowing that the season was going to get back on, we needed to ensure we stayed fit because we knew we weren’t going to have much time to get back into it. “Aaaarghhhhh! I feel like home-schooling should be a torture! If someone is doing something wrong, you should send kids to them and go, ‘Teach these kids’ because, do you know what, it was the hardest thing I’ve done in my life and it made me emotional.
“Teachers, I appreciate you now.
“We sat down and they would be looking at the work and you would explain the work to them as simply as you can, and they would just sit there, look at the work and ask to go to the toilet.
“They would go to the toilet, come back and ask for a drink.
“You would go to the fridge, get them a drink, come back, they would have a drink and they would say they don’t understand.
“It was literally a circle of toilet, drink and ‘I don’t understand’ and you would be there for five hours and just want to pull your hair out. They liked PE and didn’t like English because of the comprehension and stuff you have to deal with. It brought me back.”
Now, though, it’s time for Antonio to concentrate fully again on his regular job.
“I’m feeling very good,” said the former Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday forward.
“I’m raring to go. Now that we know the season is starting, I just want to start.
“After all that homeschooling, the season should begin today.
“Wolves have quality players and they have been a bogey side for us.
“But we believe in ourselves and we have a quality team here, so we have just got to go out and do the job.”
It’s the hardest thing I’ve done. It made me emotional