Isolated booters working to stay fit

National booter Bishwanath Ghosh may think himself lucky, especially when compared to his other national teammates, as unlike them the promising right-back is regularly availing gym facilities in the midst of the national shutdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

With uncertainty looming over when footballing action will resume, top footballers have been trying to maintain their fitness by doing prescribed exercise routines at home with national coach Jamie Day overseeing their home workouts over video messages and calls from England.

"They are all fine, staying fit and healthy," Jamie Day told The Daily Star, adding that the players have been sending videos of their individual workouts on their Whatsapp group, which was created last month to keep up virtual communication while physically isolating.

The likes of Bishwanath, Rahmat Mia, Yeasin Khan, Biplu Ahmed, Mohammad Ibrahim, Sohel Rana, Mahbubur Rahman Sufil, and Ashraful Islam Rana are ahead of their teammates as far as sending video footage to the British coach, who is in touch with each and every player.

"I am getting instructions from two sides -- Bashundhara Kings' trainer and Jamie Day. I have been regularly training for nearly two hours at the club gym, which is just a 10-minute walk from my house," Bishwanath told The Daily Star. "I have sent footage twice or thrice so far to the group from where I can also see the home workouts of other players."

"On Tuesday, I had a chat with Jamie. I let him know what I was doing and he told me to keep it up," said national centre-back Tapu Barman from Narayanganj, the city hit hardest by the virus after Dhaka. The severity in Narayanganj has forced him to limit running exercises to an open space beside his house.

"I used to run six days a week, but I go outside only three days a week now," he said.

Tapu addedd that BFF president Kazi Salahuddin called him to enquire about family members and provided some tips on how to hone his skills and fitness while social distancing.

Striker Nabib Newaj Jibon has been away at his home district of Bogura for nearly a month.

"There is equipment at my Dhaka house but there is nothing here. So, I try to do free-hand core strengthening and weight training with the help of five-litre bottles of water," said Jibon.

All of them were disappointed as most clubs want the BFF to cancel the rest of the season, including the incomplete BPL. The booters believe cancellation would have a negative impact on players' performance ahead of the World Cup Qualifiers and the AFC Cup.

However, Jamie was looking forward to the training sessions of the national team if the rest of the season is cancelled.

"I am hoping we will get to play some football towards the end of this year and if there is no league, we may have to look at doing a training camp to get their fitness to where it needs to be," said the 40-year-old coach, who is discussing a renewal of his two-year contract with the BFF.