Family time helps McGillvary stay fresh for resumption

TRAINING HAS become a family affair for Hudddersfield Giants and England winger Jermaine McGillvary.

Like many players, he is juggling childcare with keeping on top of his fitness during the enforced lockdown for coronavius.

However, the 31-year-old is making sure everyone gets involved in his household and is trying to glean positives from the whole ‘surreal’ experience.

With government restrictions on movement in place, McGillvary said: “It is all a bit strange but no one has experienced this sort of thing before.

“Everyone is in the same boat. I’m just trying to keep it as normal as possible.

“I train every morning with my two eldest boys. We go running, doing fitness and speed, and then come home and play for a bit.

“My eldest is nine. He gives me a bit of a run for my money. The middle one is six. It’s nice for them to experience how I train a little bit. We go to where we train with the Giants and run on the track there every morning.

“I give them weekends off. It gets them out of the house for their exercise. When I’m home I’ll do my weights and they’ll do little bits in the gym jumping around.

“My youngest is two so he stays at home and it’s just trying to keep things as regimented as I’d normally have it. But it is a bit weird not having a time to go in and train with the squad.”

With no games having been played for almost three weeks and no sign of the season starting up again any time soon, plenty of worried rugby league clubs are putting players on furlough.

They are essentially put on leave but the Government pays 80 per cent of furloughed workers’ wages, up to £2,500 per month.

Its purpose is to help struggling businesses who otherwise would have needed to lay-off staff due to the global pandemic.

McGillvary, who has spent his entire career with hometown Huddersfield and is currently in his testimonial season, said: “As far as I know, we’ll be paid as normal tomorrow (Tuesday).

“But after that it will be the government scheme. I’m not quite sure yet on how it will work and whether the club will top it (wages) up or not.

“I’ve heard from some clubs where people aren’t getting their payments topped up so a lot of people are going to struggle in that sense.

“We’ve not heard anything official yet from Huddersfield.”

There is talk of extending the season when it does finally restart and McGillvary, who represented Great Britain last autumn, admitted: “I’d be fine with that.

“It makes no difference to me. It’s not like we had anything major planned.

“And it might help people who are struggling with the new payment system to earn their money back as it will hit a lot of people hard.”