Palace star Dann: ‘We don’t know what the future holds, but the excitement is back’

by Andrew McSteen

Crystal Palace players returned to training on Tuesday at their Copers Cope base in Beckenham initially for individual and small group sessions, as revealed by the South London Press just over three weeks ago.

Officially called ‘Step One of the Return to Training Protocol’ by the Premier League, the sessions maintained Governmental social distancing guidelines, with contact training not yet permitted, and for 33-year-old defender Scott Dann it could not come soon enough.

“Maybe you think that it (football) is going to be there all the time,” said the former Birmingham player.

“In football, you kind of work off the calendar and the dates; when the season ends and when it starts and this whole process (COVID-19 lockdown) has thrown that all up in the air; not knowing what the future holds at the minute, and you don’t know what you’re going to do next.

“A few weeks ago, you hadn’t got an inclination on any return date to training, but as soon as you get that first message or that first phone call to say potentially we might be training on this date or that date, the excitement starts to come back and ever since then you are counting down the days.”

With a mooted Saturday 20 June date of the Premier League resuming competitive matches, Dann is not concerned about the 15-week break in league matches, with the Eagles last playing on Saturday 7 March, in a 1-0 home win against Watford.

“The difference with this [compared to an off season] is everyone has been training from the minute we went away,” said Dann to Sky Sports News. “Everyone has been trying to stay as fit as they possibly can (during the break) whereas in the summer you take a few weeks off, you rest and recover so hopefully across the board everyone has come back in good shape which will then lead to the time frames in training to maybe not take as long as expected.

“Coming back, into phase one, everything’s taken out of your hands; the doctor, the medical staff and all the other staff who are helping have put protocols in place so we’re not coming into contact with anyone, not even close, if anything, going back, it just makes you feel that little bit more comfortable, knowing that we are in a really safe environment.”

Dann has made just nine league appearances this season following his recovery from a knee injury at the end of 2017 which kept him on the sidelines for almost 12 months, and he revealed that he used his experiences from that period – which included investing in start-up companies for his post-football life – to help him through the past few months without football.

“Personally, the mental side of things is something I’ve never really struggled with – I am not saying that being in that (injured) situation is easy because it’s not,” said Dann, who, earlier this season extended his five-year contract, signed in 2015, to summer 2021.

“There is a lot of hard work you have to undertake to get yourself back physically to where you need to go and follow the medical team’s guidelines, and thankfully doing that and worked as hard as I possibly could I probably came back sooner than what was expected.

“I thought I could put some time and energy into that (start-up companies), and it would take away the time that I’ve got to think about being injured, and it did. It helped me a lot, so when you do come back on the other side of the injury, you’re itching to get back in the team.

“On the mental side, when I come away (from football), I’ve got something, I’m capable of coming away from football and switching off – this is something that really helped me at that time.

“My wife and kids helped me to switch off totally because they kept me busy and then other interests outside of football, but time moves on and the Premier League moves really fast.

“When one player is injured it gives one player an opportunity to go in so when I come back into the team, there were three or four players in my position who had been playing really well so you have to fight even harder to get yourself back into the position you was before you got injured.

“It wasn’t an easy time, but mentally, I was able to switch off. I’m just looking forward to getting back into training (now) and playing games.”