Lopetegui: Five weeks are needed to train for the rest of the season

Sevilla boss Julen Lopetegui has insisted that teams need at least five weeks' notice before the season can get back underway.

There is constant debate over when teams can return to training in Spain, with no confirmed date set at the moment.

Lopetegui spoke to MARCA via the #NuestaMejorVictoria campaign that is raising funds for the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) in Spain.

How are you living through the lockdown?

Like everyone else, with a logical concern of such a big tragedy which was something difficult to imagine. You try to adapt and do what you have to do each day and be consistent with an uncertain future that we're imagining. You feel worried for your relatives and for some friends that have left me during this tragedy.

How do you spend your days at home?

With a daily routine that makes you do things all the time and you still need time at the end, it's curious. You have a routine of staying in with your players and watching lots of football. I also use the exercise bike that I have to keep fit somewhat. I'm trying not to eat too much.

How are you staying in touch with your players? Video calls?

We're trying to establish a permanent link with our players on two aspects - professionally and I also have private conversations with each one of them because they're people with their own fears, phobias and uncertainties.

Do you think they're nervous about returning to training or scared of getting infected?

All the players are worried about returning. We want to return to play, but there is the concern over how and in what way. We have to trust the good practice of the sporting establishments and the Ministry of Health, the main people responsible, who have to guarantee the health of all our players.

Aside from that is the preparation time and we need at least five weeks to be able to play a match every three days in an emotional scenario that is difficult to understand and that no one has ever seen before. It's not just about playing behind closed doors, so we'll need the best conditions.

There is a precedent in the NFL from 2011 where there was a suspension of three months because of a working problem and that led to 12 ruptured Achilles tendon injuries in the first month of competition back when they'd had five the whole season.

I hope that when the moment comes and we get the green light from the Ministry of Health, that we have that time to prepare that scenario.

There has been a lot of talk in recent days about a return to training. What are you expecting?

There's no precedents to show what the return will be like, but this won't be like a return from holiday, not in a state of fitness or mind of the player who's going to be at 20 percent of their normal fitness, that is clear to me.

When the circumstances allow, with all the health guarantees, that re-adaptation time will be completely necessary to preserve another part of health - not just that of the virus but the physical health of the players. It's going to be a tremendous scenario.

There will be very different situations and a quite complex emotional scenario. People think that all footballers have chalets and big plots, but those are the least. There have been infections in many clubs. This isn't external to any profession, including football.

How do you imagine playing without fans in the stands?

Football without a crowd is another scenario that we don't know and that we'll have to adapt to when the moment comes. Football has a lot of feeling because of the fans in the stands and we'll have to adapt to a reality that no one wants.

There's quite a bit of controversy surrounding how teams are chosen for European competitions if their leagues aren't completed. What do you think about this?

Our current position and whether we qualify for the Champions League or not is something that is now completely in the background. The most important thing is health, and I'm an interested party on that.

We'll need a minimum amount of time to prepare so that we can present a product that is in minimum conditions, but I dare say that it's going to be a monstrosity because don't know where this is going to go. Therefore, we have to stay calm and wait, giving priority to health.

Do you think those priorities are clear at the moment?

We live in incredibly uncertain times in general, not just in the world of football. We have to adapt and have priorities. Mine is the physical and mental state of my players and also to be up to date with the news on a government level on when we can return.

The absolute priority is that those who are infected don't infect others and that those who don't have it don't get it. We have to have confidence in the science. You can't further or higher than football.

It seems like the bottom line is that LaLiga has to be completed, that it can't not get finished.

If they cancel the season, I know it will be because there are no other possibilities, but it also seems fair to me that all other possibilities are explored because there is lots at stake, even though it's in a strange way.

No one is able to predict what is going to happen from now on, [but] we're going to confront it and the authorities will always prioritise the main objective that is the health of everyone.

This interview is being done as part of the #NuestraMejorVictoria initiative, led by Rafa Nadal and Pau Gasol and lots of other sportspeople. Are you taking advantage of this delicate moment in the football world to show your social commitment?

Football is participating for what I'm seeing and hearing. There are lots of initiatives on a collective and individual level. We're privileged people and it's able being together, which is what sport is doing, not just football. Like in this unified initiative.

Are you getting anything positive out of this catastrophe?

Every day there are lessons from many professions in this country. We've seen that footballers aren't the heroes of society but those who risk their lives every day like health workers, nurses, firefighters, policemen, pharmacists... People that have allowed us to be able to keep living as if nothing had happened. That is a lesson.

The scale of values of society has to be adjusted, the priority of social matters has to be different. Let's hope we emerge as a better, more together, more sensitive society that is able to value things we have more.

Let's hope we can hug each other again and reunite with friends and family in normality, which will come. Let's hope when that moment comes, we don't forget this because the human race forget things quickly. That's why I'd like to have a memory for that generation that left us in the cruellest way, people that have taken the country forward after the Civil War.

They are, in my opinion, the best generation this country has had and they've left us without the recognition they deserve. That's what we should do as a society: never forget them.