The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Higginbotham longing to be with kids after horror in India
Kallum Higginbotham admits he cannot wait to give his two young children a cuddle with his coronavirus nightmare in India about to end.
The former Kilmarnock, Dunfermline, Partick Thistle and Falkirk playmaker, who joined David Robertson’s Real Kashmir team last summer, has been confined to his hotel in Srinagar for the past six weeks along with the one-time Rangers defender, his wife and son, and coaches Jimmy Lindsay and Jonathan Craig.
India is said to have implemented the strictest restrictions in the world but the lockdown is expected to end tomorrow and the British High Commission in New Delhi has informed the stranded Brits that efforts are being made to secure their return home.
Englishman Higginbotham’s family live in Edinburgh and the 30-year-old is longing for the day he is reunited with them.
He said: “All I want to do is give my two kids a cuddle. My daughter is seven and my son is two, and they are at home with my partner in Edinburgh.
“It is mentally breaking – I am video calling them, but it isn’t the same as being with them. It is a nightmare and I just feel so hopeless about the situation.
“We have been in touch with the British High Commission and given them our details in the hope of getting a flight home. We are apparently on the waiting list, so it is a case of fingers crossed at the moment.
“Being on my own in my room is really lonely, so our British group try to stay together for as long as we can during the day.
“Our last training session was on 28 March. We were then told that nobody was allowed in or out of the hotel. I haven’t stepped foot outside of the hotel since then.
“There is a little garden in the grounds and the weather is good, so I can get some fresh air, but it is like being in a prison, with your daily one hour of exercise in the yard. I get up as late as possible so the days are shorter, but every day is like Groundhog Day.
“I don’t think I could come back out to India. Once I am home I want to find a club in the UK.”