Before Canberra United's Ash Sykes retired she says she would not have coped well with being forced off the pitch for a week, but now she's been forced away from the pitch the Dubbo junior is trying to focus on the positives.
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Sykes came back from a three-year retirement for Canberra United this season but the entire sporting landscape, and indeed most of the world, is now a different place.
The threat of COVID is affecting sport from a global scale right through to local competitions and United are feeling it's impact right now.
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A disappointing women's A-League season hit a new low on the weekend when Canberra suffered a heavy 6-0 loss to Sydney FC and things went from bad to worse on Monday when it was confirmed COVID-19 had been detected within the squad.
Although United's camp has not confirmed who tested positive, staff and the 16 players who travelled to Jubilee Stadium are all isolating as close contacts until next Tuesday.
Sykes was not involved in last year's disrupted COVID season but said everyone was rolling with the punches of the changing circumstances as they happened.
"I think everyone's sort of gotten used to it," Sykes said of the pandemic's threat on Tuesday.
"When I was playing previously, I probably would have been thrown a fair bit by the prospect of sitting at home for a week and not having much to do. Now I've got a squat rack and all sorts of plates out there after being locked down over the last few years. So I'm pretty prepared for it now but it's still a bit frustrating."
The silver lining for Sykes is it gives her a chance to ease her a hip flexor injury suffered during the loss to Sydney FC.
"I've been working on strengthening that. A few days off football stuff and time to strengthen it, probably ends up being good for me. So I've got a week now to kick the ball less than anything that aggravates it, and I'll hopefully come back stronger after a little layoff," she said.
Sykes, 30, had a chance to score against Sydney FC on Saturday when the competition leaders only led 2-0. She was denied by goalkeeper Jada Whyman and there were few other chances for United in what was the heaviest loss in the club's history.
"It's always hard to cut those losses, especially when you had expectations certainly higher than that going into the game. So disappointed is probably the best way to describe it," Sykes said.
"For me, I probably would have liked to have seen a bit more determination from everyone. You're not going to go into a game fully fit sometimes or in the best position as a squad. And sometimes you need to grit your teeth, and get stuck in and try and grind out some form of result.
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Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
