IT is a strange time to be a sports reporter.

After the recent storms and raft of weather-related postponements, I – along with many professional colleagues up and down the country – was gearing up for several weeks of match after match after match as the football season reaches boiling point.

Falmouth Town, for example, had a minimum of 19 matches to play inside a two-month period. Until Friday my challenges appeared to be working out how to cram everything into the limited sports pages available and deciding how many games – and miles – I could cover before collapsing of exhaustion.

And then the coronavirus came along.

Suddenly, none of the above matters as sport, and life as we knew it, has come to a standstill.

With people panic-buying toilet roll, wandering about town with blue medical gloves and casting wicked glances at you should you dare to even attempt a sneeze, it is clear that the fear of catching the virus is a very real one that exists in all of our lives.

That concern has spread to the world of sport, with several high-profile sporting events, including the Premier League, English Football League, Six Nations, Masters golf and England’s men’s Test tour of Sri Lanka, all being postponed.

The rationale behind this is that sport tends to attract lots of spectators, all coming from different parts of different countries in support of their teams/nations/favourite players.

When a new and deadly virus is on the scene, this is not an ideal situation, and so while the Government decreed on Thursday that sports events can continue as normal for the time being, the vast majority of sports organisations decided to suspend all competitions/fixtures indefinitely.

Except the ongoing Cheltenham Festival, which, rather bizarrely, carried on as normal.

The suspension was not limited to top-level sport, with most leagues within England’s non-league system following suit and cancelling all matches for the foreseeable future.

Except the National League at the top of the pyramid, which, rather bizarrely, carried on as normal.

It certainly made sense to, given that non-league football in England is generally very well supported and can attract crowds of four figures even at the lower levels.

The Rugby Football Union and England Hockey have not stopped teams from playing matches yet, but one feels it is only a matter of time.

What it means is that almost all local sport has been suspended until further notice, which is not an ideal situation for someone whose job relies on sport, well, actually happening.

When a weekend washout occurs, which is maybe two or three times a year, someone in my situation would usually call upon their stock of timeless ‘rainy day’ content, used to fill those larger-than-usual gaps when all of the local fixtures have been rained off.

But with no obvious end to this situation in sight, with the pandemic not expected to reach its peak until May, all rules have gone out of the window.

These are truly unprecedented times for post-war sports reporters.

But then again, that doesn’t really matter, does it?

I do my job because I love sport. I mean, I love it. Not a minute goes by when I’m not consuming it in some capacity, be it writing, reading, watching, listening, playing, or merely thinking about it.

I am one of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in the UK now wondering what to do to fill the void in our lives created by the coronavirus’ culling of the sporting schedule.

But these drastic measures have been taken to maximise our safety and minimise the spread of what is a potentially deadly virus.

Many of us may still be living our lives normally – lack of toilet roll aside – but there are also lots of people who are worried about what could happen to themselves or their loved ones, especially those with elderly and vulnerable relatives.

The severity of the situation hit home for me over the weekend, with my father out in Spain just as the country was set to declare a national lockdown.

He arrived home safe and sound on Sunday, but is now, along with my mother, in self-isolation.

They will both be fine, in all likelihood, but these steps have to be taken. My elderly grandmother lives a few doors up from them and would potentially be at risk if they were to come into contact with her.

They are not thinking about their own safety, they are thinking about other people’s.

There have been too many people doing the opposite in the last couple of days when they complained at the sports schedule being wiped out.

“The media have blown it out of proportion.”

“It’s no worse than the common flu.”

“You’re more likely to get it in Asda than at a football match.”

It is, certainly at this stage anyway, not about stopping every public gathering, but it is about limiting them to only important or essential ones. Sport, as much as it pains me to say, is not essential.

As for me, and my esteemed sports colleagues up and down the country, will muddle through and find our own creative ways of filling newspaper pages and website column inches, but that’s not the most important thing.

The important thing is to look after yourselves and those around you.

The NHS recommends that you stay at home for seven days if you have either:

  • A high temperature
  • A new, continuous cough

The NHS recommends, among other things, that you:

  • wash your hands with soap and water often and for at least 20 seconds
  • cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or sleeve (not your hands) if you cough or sneeze
  • try to avoid close contact with people who are unwell

For more information on the NHS’ guidelines, click here.