Phillip Cocu has discussed Derby County's return to training this week.

Fans of the English Football League haven't seen a fixture in over two months now, but as teams in both the Premier League and the Championship returned to training this week, football's return is quickly closing in.

Speaking to RamsTV about getting back into their training routine this week, Cocu expressed his delight to be back with his squad:

"It felt really great to be back, but of course it is different and we have to adapt to the guidelines. We saw from the pictures from the training sessions and the players that everyone was happy that we could return and start training again.

“It also felt really good to see each other after such a long time. It is a positive feeling and we hope to progress and the goal, obviously, is to start to play games in the near future if things continue to be positive.”

Cocu has received mixed reviews of his maiden season at the club, but on the whole, fans seem content with his tenure so far. They currently sit in 12th-place of the Championship table, five points behind 6th-place Preston.

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But Cocu has remained coy around things getting back to normal:

“It is nice to have that normal feel, but we have to be very careful," he continued. "Things are improving, but we have to be careful because we know where we came from and we don’t want to go back to that situation.

“The NHS and key workers are doing a great job to keep everyone going and to treat people, so we have to follow the guidelines.”

As and when the season resumes, Derby will have nine games left to make a late break for the top-six. Their form has been evidently better since the turn of the year, or since the arrival of Wayne Rooney.

The Rams have lost just three of the league games he's featured in, and England's all-time top-scorer is showing no signs of slowing down in this new challenge.

The verdict

It's great for players and fans alike to see training resume. It marks another step on the route back to normality but as Cocu reminded us, we still have to be very careful.

It'll be interesting to see how Derby fare amongst all the other mid-table teams looking to snatch a top-six spot, but given their form in this calendar year, a top-six finish for Cocu and Derby is very possible.