Frustration as is put on hold

“If you are looking at it purely from a footballing point of view, it is really difficult for the players, for the backroom staff and for the fans.

“But, again, there is a bigger picture here in terms of a health crisis.

“We have to be guided by the government and the governing bodies in football but it has not been easy.

“Everybody is in the same boat really and there are no real answers to what is happening and when we can get back to what is perceived as normal.

“It is difficult – there is no other way of putting it.”

For as long as the Championship remains without a definitive restart date, many elements of Dundee’s normal business operations will remain on hold.

On the football side, that means recruitment and day-to-day work with players.

They are crucial to any club’s success.

But McPake insists he – and everybody else at Dens Park who is not furloughed – is doing everything he can so ensure as seamless a return to action as possible.

“I speak to John (Nelms) a couple of times a week or maybe more but nothing has really changed,” he said.

“We are where we are and there is no definitive date to when we can start back.

“It is not like a normal summer or break in the season like a winter one or international break.

“There is always a structure to football and when you are back. The players, staff, everybody knows that but at the moment that has completely gone.

“It is everyone’s longest lay-off – we are now getting to the stage where the players have been off the same amount of time if they had a serious injury so that brings its problems physically and mentally.

“It is just about trying to get everything right so that, when we do get the green light to start back, we are in as good a position as possible.”

been ‘difficult for the players, for the backroom staff and for the fans’.