The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Dundee defender Cammy Kerr is already missing daily visits to Dens Park but admits ‘there are more important things than football’ amid the coronavirus shutdown.
Dens defender already missing daily routine as shutdown hits home
Dundee stalwart Cammy Kerr is not built to withstand cabin fever but says the message ‘there are more important things than football’ is starting to hit home amid the coronavirus shutdown.
Taking a bad result or below-par performance home, Kerr says that phrase would always be used to try to cheer him up.
And it never worked.
Now, though, as the Covid-19 pandemic sweeps the world and affects all branches of society, including the football shutdown, he is beginning to see the truth in that message.
Kerr told The Courier: “It’s been difficult, like it has for everybody. We’re all in the same situation.
“I’ve been nipping to my mum’s and using the gym to keep me occupied but I know I can’t keep doing that.
“It’s the best job in the world being a footballer and when you’re not able to do it, it’s rubbish.
“However, you have to realise there is a bigger picture. It’s easy to look from a selfish point of view and moan but there is a bigger issue of people’s safety and their health.”
He added: “I get cabin fever at the best of times, never mind with this situation.
“Anyone who knows me has been saying ‘you’ll go off your head in the house’. I always need to be doing stuff. I’ve been pottering around the house but I struggle to sit around.
“I’m already missing going into Dens and seeing everyone, there’s always plenty of banter. I’d usually get a bit off Gowser so it’ll be good to get a rest from him!
“You think about these things but at the back of the mind you are always aware there are more important things than football, it’s about keeping things in perspective.
“That might be good for me in the long-term. I would always have a bad game in my head and people would say ‘there are more important things than football’ and I can definitely see that now.”
Training has been cancelled all week at Dens Park and, with no indication from the authorities of when it will be safe to restart playing, Kerr and his team-mates have had to find ways to fill their time away from the football pitch.
For a young man like Kerr who is dedicated to his job and keeping himself in the best shape possible for his boyhood club, that’s not been easy and he knows it will get harder over the coming weeks as everyone gets to grips with such a massive change to normal life.
The 24-year-old added: “My usual routine is to head to Dens early doors about 8am. Recently I’ve been doing a bit with the physio Gerry Docherty after the problem with my knee and start training at 9am till lunchtime.
“Then it’s gym in the afternoon and home before maybe heading to the pool or sauna in the evening. Changing that for me has been difficult.
“Since we’ve been off I’ve been getting a longer lie and going to meet up with some people.
“… there is a bigger issue of people’s safety and their health. CAMMY KERR
“Fin Robertson is one of the local boys so we’ve gone for coffee.
“It’s the same struggles that everyone is having – going to the shops and not being able to get handwash and stuff like that.
“It’s difficult to do anything really because there is nothing concrete to say when we are going to restart.”
When the Dark Blues do finally get back out on the pitch, Kerr expects the good form since the start of February to continue as Dundee look to put their up-and-down start to life in the Championship behind them.
“I had said from day one we had a really good group of players at the club and I don’t think it was expected we would be so inconsistent,” he added.
“The boys who came in in January have all brought something and we had been doing well up until the shutdown.
“We have a standard to meet every day and, if we were still playing, we would expect to be getting better and better.”