Nottingham Forest manager Sabri Lamouchi has been speaking about the outbreak of coronavirus.
COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, with the number of cases, and unfortunately deaths, rising daily.
Nottingham Forest were one of the first to be hit by the virus, with owner Evangelos Marinakis testing positive earlier this month.
The situation has undoubtedly worsened since that point, and Lamouchi admits nobody was prepared for it.
“We weren’t prepared, we don’t know what to do,” he told Tuttomercatoweb.
“Italy was the first nation to close everything. Unfortunately or fortunately we have in England, we have followed the Italian guidelines.
“Nobody expected the whole world two months ago to be stopped for a virus. But we must absolutely respect the rules, stay home.
“And move very little – the bare minimum. Doctors, nurses, law enforcement are the real champions. At the forefront of all humanity.”
As is the case across the world, the football calendar in England has been brought to a halt by the outbreak of COVID-19.
The English authorities initially set a deadline of early April for the football to return, although that has already been extended until the end of the month.
It is looking likely to be extended again given how the situation continues to worsen, with questions about whether the season can even finish.
That would be a blow for Forest, who are currently sitting in the playoff spots in the Championship, and Lamouchi admits they don’t know what will happen.
“We have nine games left to finish the season. We are in the playoffs. But we don’t know what can happen.
“We ask our players to stay at home and respect the rules, perhaps taking advantage to rest and be with the family.
“I have given my players a program. It was initially for a week; now the situation is going on and on. It is a very difficult situation.
“Our team manager Roberto Berghenti is at home in Parma. Then our president tested positive. This situation frightens me about the number of deaths.”
While the situation is looking bleak across Europe at this moment in time, there will be a time when things return to normal.
This has already been seen in China, where the virus is reported to have originated, with them loosening their lockdown laws after seemingly bringing the virus under control.
At the moment that looks far away for most countries in Europe and the Nottingham Forest boss admits he is ‘afraid of tomorrow’.
“First of all we have to understand why we got to this point,” he added.
“Because we have not avoided the pandemic. Then everything will be different. I’m afraid of tomorrow; every day is getting worse.
“I wish this whole situation would end soon. And go back to doing the simple things before: going out, travelling, seeing people, hugging us.
“When we get past this moment, we will appreciate the little things of every day.”
