Sunderland manager Phil Parkinson says his side are desperate to return to training and complete the season as soon as they are able to do so.

The Black Cats are currently seventh in the League One table, only outside the play-off places on goal difference, although it is now nearly two months since they last played due to the suspension of the football season.

Having placed their squad on the government's furlough scheme last month, the club's players are no longer able to train from home as they had previously been doing, although Parkinson has still been in regular contact with his side.

Providing on update on his squad's current situation, Parkinson told The Chronicle: "We're monitoring what we can and can't do and the minute it is safe to get back into the training ground, either individually or in small groups, we'll be looking to do that.

"The lads were going through a fitness programme under Nick Allamby but then, of course, the players and coaching staff have been put on furlough, which changes things.

"But the players want to be back as quickly as possible, so they will be keeping up their fitness at home – modern-day players would do that as a matter of course – and they will be using their daily exercise as a release, both physically and mentally, like a lot of other people in the country.

"I've checked in on them to make sure they are OK and mentally in a good place, and they are very positive. They just want to be back at work and back training again, which you can understand."

Discussing the possibility of a return to training for clubs in the next few weeks with a view to concluding the season over the course of the summer, Parkinson continued: "We all want to get the season going again but everybody understands the situation and we can only get back training and playing when it is safe.

"When you look at where we are now, saying that in a month's time 22 players are going to be running around in close proximity on a football pitch seems quite a long way away.

"The signs from the Government are that things are going in the right direction and we just hope that that continues as the weeks go on."

The Verdict

I think this is probably encouraging to see from a Sunderland perspective.

Having downed tools and with little by way of a distraction at the minute, it would certainly be easy for some players to lose their motivation as a result of what is going on.

Parkinson's comments here however, suggest that that has not been the case for his Sunderland side at least, and with a place in the Championship to compete for when football eventually does resume, that motivation is something those Black Cats players probably could not afford to lose from a football perspective.