For jonathan panzo, the rush home was nothing like he’d imagined. The England U21 international had been playing on loan at Cercle Brugge when the coronavirus outbreak deadlocked the sporting world. In the dressing room, teammates started to share pictures of empty shelves but still couldn’t quite grasp the invisible threat rolling over the horizon. “My main worry was just getting back home,” the monaco defender tells The Independent. “A few days after I got back, we got told the club doctor had tested positive for the virus and we all had to isolate. Then when Callum [Hudson-Odoi] got it, I was a bit scared, when it’s someone close to you, it all feels very real.”

A few weeks later, amid the tragedy that’s now all too familiar, the pandemic brought an “upsetting and frustrating” end to Panzo’s first full season in senior football. Not only did it cut short his time in Bruges, with belongings left behind and goodbyes still to tell, but it also halted a surge of momentum he’d built after an occasionally juddering start to life abroad.