Ilkeston Town Ladies’ Hannah Bloomfield says it’s good to be back in training after the enforced break due to COVID-19.
The Ladies, like their male counterparts, saw their season eventually curtailed after several months on hold.
And Bloomfield said life without football was difficult to come to terms with, the players having had to instead exercise on their own.
She said: “It has been horrible because we have not been able to train and we have not been able to banter with each other.
“I have just done a bit of running and a bit of football at the park. Things like that, nothing major. It‘s hard when you have not got the girls around. It is definitely not the same.“
The team has now started training again in preparation for next season. In the last campaign, the team was fighting to get promoted from the East Midlands Women’s Regional League Division One South, being in fourth place when the season ended but only a point behind leaders Derby County Academy with a game in hand.
Bloomfield added: “It is definitely good to be back with the team and getting ready for next season.
“I am sad that the league was cancelled because we were doing well. We were close to the top so it is disappointing.
“Now we just focus on next season. The next couple of months will be hard; Mike and Earl are going to put us through our paces. We will be playing friendlies and training hard.
“We‘ve got a really good team so it‘s exciting to see what will happen.”