It was tough leaving back to play in Israel.. son Cole asked was: Is the My family and going the first question my war over?
Clark Robertson receives the chilling alert on his phone and the sound of sirens swiftly follows.
He heads straight for his safe room. From that sanctuary, he hears the thunderous sounds of rockets fired from Gaza being intercepted by Israel ’ s air defence system.
This isn’t how the ex-Aberdeen defender anticipated spending his evenings when he signed for MS Ashdod in the summer.
But the first-ever Scot to play in the Israeli top-flight now accepts this as part of his life in a nation at war.
Robertson has been back in Ashdod, 22 miles from the Gaza border, for a fortnight and is two games into the league restart.
His appetite for continuing his career in Israel remains unsated although the feeling isn’t wholly shared by his family.
The former Rotherham and Portsmouth centre-half made a mad scramble to return to Aberdeen when Hamas launched their horrifying attack on Israel.
He stayed with his parents, Michael and Sharon, and enjoyed time with seven-year- old son Cole and daughter Mimi (4) during six weeks away.
The call to return, however, came with many mixed emotions for the 30-year- old. Robertson said: “I had reservations about coming back. I didn’t know what to expect.
“I spoke to my team-mates and Israeli people are sort of used to some rockets being fired from Gaza to Israel most years.
“For us foreign players it’s not normal, is it? My dad was okay for me to go back as long as it was safe.
“My mum was most concerned –she didn’t want me to go back at all. Cole understood a little bit. I told him why I was home and told him why I was leaving again.
“He asked: ‘Is the war over now?’ I had to tell him that it wasn’t finished. He knows it’s my job and I’ve got to go back.
“It was difficult saying goodbye to them, knowing I was coming back to this situation. I’ve felt safe, apart from a few alarms going off here and there.”
Robertson woke on October 7 to be told of the terrorist attack and that his club’s game against Maccabi Bnei Reineh was off.
Overseas players were advised to flee the country.
Two of Robertson’s flights were cancelled, the third delayed.
After 26 hours in the airport, including in safe shelter as rockets were blown up in the sky, he got out and eventually home via Budapest and London.
The squad’s WhatsApp group kept everyone in the loop with developments.
Management stayed on top of each player’s fitness regime. The
game paled into insignificance against the horrors of the conflict escalating.
But Robertson believes his colleagues are finding solace in returning to the field.
He said: “All Israelis are affected by what happened but we haven’t really spoken too deeply about it.
“Back training, I got the feeling players were happy to see us foreign ones back.
“They were excited to start again. When you’re doing a job you love, it’s an escape from the reality of what’s going on.
“Everyone speaks about when – or if – it will all end. But no one knows. They just want to get back to some sort of normality.
“Most of Israel is. Restaurants and shopping malls are busy. There are alarms sometimes when you’re out and you just have to go to a safe place as quickly as possible.”
Robertson experienced the panic and shock of a scramble to his safe room for the first time 10 days ago.
He said: “Most of the time, you’d never know there was a war 30 minutes down the road from my apartment.
“But I’ve been woken up a few nights. Not from rockets into Ashdod but the Israeli military bombing Gaza.
“In Ashkelon, 10 minutes away and closer to Gaza, they get a lot of rockets and I hear the boom of them getting intercepted.
“My apartment’s safe room has a thicker door and walls and an iron protector to pull over the window.
“A critical alert notification pops up on your phone. A second later you’ll hear sirens.
“You’ve 30 seconds to get into your safe room, close the door and stay there for 10 minutes after the sirens go off.
“You hear the interceptions overhead like the loudest thunder.
“Since then, we’ve heard them before our match last Saturday in Nazareth and in Tuesday’s team meeting.”
Robertson insists there’s no chance of him bailing on Ashdod and his one-year deal, hoping it’s the start and far from the end of an adventure. He explained: “I love living here. I finish training and go to the beach sunbathing and for coffees, go to restaurants with my foreign team-mates.
“It’s completely different to living in the UK. It’s something I wanted to experience in my career.
“People in Ashdod are really friendly. The league is real ly competitive. It’s slower- paced than British footbal l, a good technical league.
“We’ve won and drawn since coming back and want to push up the table. I want to continue here if safe for me to do so.
“If I have a good season it opens more opportunities for me to stay in Israel or elsewhere abroad.
“But my focus now is on doing well at Ashdod.”