I have same training routine as at club, then play Pokemon with my son
Watford defender Christian Kabasele shares the ups and downs of a footballer’s life during lockdown
‘It is tough for everyone but we are lucky as a lot of people are losing their jobs’
Iwake up with my son Liam. He is the first to wake up in the house and during the season I do not have the opportunity to have breakfast with him. He is enjoying it as much as me. When I go to the supermarket I try to buy the same things that I have at the training ground – sometimes it is eggs, or granola, or porridge. I am trying to have the same eating habits and have the same level of energy to work after breakfast.
I have one training session but a long one, starting around 11am. I do a bit of work with the ball in my garden as I have everything to do that here. Then I jump on the bike and can do speed exercises as I have space to do 10 and 20-metre sprints. I try to have the same routine as I have at the training ground. Some days I do gym work to help strength and mobility.
We are on a personalised programme from the club and have a stopwatch to log times, synchronised with an app after each session, and the fitness coach can check our work.
We ordered books to do exercises with my son and we also received tasks from his nursery to do, then we have time to play. At the moment he loves playing Pokemon, so I am trying to enter his world, trying to make the time go faster.
When the kids are sleeping I chill out with my wife, and we are watching The Blacklist (a crime thriller), season six, at the moment. We did not have much time to watch it before.
It is good spending time with family but everyone also wants to play football. I miss the time at the training ground speaking about other things with team-mates. We are in a WhatsApp group but it is not the same as seeing someone.
The feeling of being outside is something we miss but this is a tough time for everyone and we are lucky, a lot of people are losing their jobs or are not getting paid as usual. The positive thing is that we are healthy and can spend time with the family.