The Covid-19 pandemic has forced a number of countries Uganda inclusive, to end their football seasons prematurely.
Others have however managed to ride the storm with many European leagues having resumed or close to a return.
Like many stakeholders the development has pleased Cranes coach Jonathan McKinstry who has seen a number of players return to action over the past week.
“With the forced break in football, nobody welcomed it. But it has been a period for most players to fully recover from their ailments,” McKinstry said in an interview on the website of domestic football governing body Fufa.
“In March for instance Faruku Miya was injured but he is now doing well and will be ready to play when the Turkish league resumes. Kizito Luwagga in Israel is back and played 65 minutes last Saturday for his club Hapoel Kfar Saba.”
“The biggest challenge is now match fitness. When you have not played for so long, it is tiring and physically demanding. That is where they need to improve but it is the same situation for all footballers everywhere in the world,” added the Northern Irishman who took charge of the Cranes last year.
“Luwagga Kizito (Hapoel Kfar Saba) and Timothy Denis Awany (F.C. Ashdod) played in Israel last weekend as well as Robert Kakeeto (AaB) who played the full 90 minutes in the Danish top flight division.”
“We are starting to have our players get back to the field of play. In the coming weeks, we are getting more and more players coming into action. The Swedish league is coming back soon, the South African league,” he further noted.
Before the pandemic, McKinstry who has also coached in Rwanda and Sierra Leone was preparing the Cranes for the Chan tournament that was due to be held in Cameroon back in April.
That has however not stopped him from communicating with the players with whom he has kept in regular touch.
“We are actively working in the background. We are in constant communication with the players and discussions with them every day.”
“We have an online learning platform for all our players where every week we are engaging not just our foreign based players but also the home based players.”
“Aware that some players have robust training programmes by their respective clubs, we are acting as a supplementary for them and many of them have sent pictures to show the amount of space they have as we advise according on what kind of drills they can do,” McKinstry further explained.
It remains to be seen when the Cranes will return to action with football governing body Fifa recommending that all June 2020 international matches (including matchday 5 of Afcon Qualifier) be postponed.
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