Life in the bubble is hard and EVERYONE must try to be a bit more understanding

THE nearest thing I got to in my hockey career to a ‘bubble’ was when we made a squad decision to all come off social media for the entire 2016 Olympic Games.

That doesn’t even get close in comparison to what sports people are going through now in order to play international sport during a global pandemic.

This whole issue got highlighted by Moeen Ali’s departure last week from the England cricket team’s bubble on their tour of India.

It was a decision that had been made weeks ago, along with other England players, as the management looked to give players some time at home during a relentless schedule.

I understand there is another argument within this around England players resting to play in the Indian Premier League rather that prioritising Test cricket but that’s for more qualified cricket people than me to argue about.

People rarely feel sorry for well-paid professional sports people, least of all during the struggles of Covid, and I get that. But the impact of these bubbles should not be underestimated.

Elite sport places the highest levels of demand on someone’s body and mind.

The pressure and expectation is enormous and even though you can feel like the whole world is looking at you, it can be very lonely.

Those moments of selfdoubt or coping with a failure can be suffocating.

The need to feel some normality is vital, like simply just spending time with the family at home.

For the cricketers, men and women, the time they are spending in bubbles with only their team-mates and coaches far surpasses what most other sports are doing.

If Moeen (below) had stayed on the India tour, he was looking at about six months away from his wife and young children.

Even this little break he is having now is just two weeks long through this spell.

Their ability to feel some normality within the abnormal world of elite sport is so limited and being honest, I don’t know if I could have coped with that, regardless of the money I was earning.

I needed to feel that support from my husband Tom and my family in order to be who I wanted to be as an athlete.

To have felt cut-off for months on end might have been too much for me.

The recent IPL auction has just earned Moeen the best part of £700,000, so I’m not expecting people to rush with sympathy for him or other cricketers.

But I know how tough it would be performing and living in these bubbles.

Their mental health will come under serious challenge, and cricket had already had a number of high-profile cases of players suffering through this. I am grateful that cricket seems a sport on top of that.

So this is definitely not a request for sympathy but just a perspective for people to also consider.