Monday 27 April 2020 22:47, UK
Watford chief executive Scott Duxbury feels uncomfortable talking about football's possible return as his club continues to help the NHS in fighting coronavirus.
The Premier League club is hosting hundreds of front line NHS staff, who have been given food, drink and a place to wash, sleep and relax at Vicarage Road.
Club staff are volunteering to run facilities and will continue to do so until the crisis is over.
Elsewhere in Premier League circles, there is growing momentum about the return of top-flight football under the name of "Project Restart" with Arsenal and West Ham among clubs to re-open their training grounds for individual workouts.
But Duxbury's focus remains on what he, and the club, can do to help those fighting coronavirus every day.
"Do I want to resume football? Absolutely. So when it is safe and the government says it is absolutely fine for players and all the support staff that follow football to return, then I am 100 per cent behind that," he said.
"But at the moment, I do feel that all efforts, all concentration has to be on beating this pandemic and supporting the NHS. And I really do not want anything to detract from that.
"Everyone can see what we are facing. It is a war and it is a war we need to win. I understand that football plays an important part in society. And I can't wait for it to return. But, as a priority, I think everyone understands where our priorities need to lie.
"[That] is helping the NHS and it is helping beating this. And maybe this partnership has made it a little more clear for me. But it is a view I think and hope I have always held.
"It is entirely our privilege to actually feel we can, in some way, help and help out the hospital during this difficult time. I think it would not be possible if it was not for the staff at this football club. It is often said we are the first family club. The words are easy. The actions are sometimes a little bit harder."
