Soccer

Bobby Burns recounts the end of days leaving Australia

Bobby Burns, pictured playing for Glenavon, before making his move to Hearts
Bobby Burns, pictured playing for Glenavon, before making his move to Hearts Bobby Burns, pictured playing for Glenavon, before making his move to Hearts

FOOTBALLER Bobby Burns has recounted his 40-hour nightmare journey home to his family in Crumlin after catching one of the very last flights out of Australia following the Covid-19 lockdown.

Burns, who is self-isolating at home as a precaution, felt like the “walls were closing in” as soon as the Australian A League announced it was suspending all activities on March 23.

Burns, who was on loan at Newcastle Jets, said: “The travel was mad coming back. [Assistant manager] Kenny Miller was searching for flights for about three days and I think he went through Singapore.

“Joe Ledley ended up going to LA to get home; he went east. The walls were just closing in. I was very lucky to get out. There are next to no flights out of Australia now. Conor Glass [former Derry GAA player and Aussie Rules ace] can’t get home. Flights were costing him about £5,000.

“The Kuala Lumpur airport was virtually shut down. The only reason the flight got off the ground was because they were trying to get Malaysians home who were stuck in Australia, and they were also trying to get Malaysians back from London, so they were only letting us go to London. So we literally got on the last flight.”

Burns had been finding his best form with the Jets and was hoping to guide them into the end of season play-offs until the league suddenly shut down. The league is suspended until April 22 but a lot of squads are now obliterated as many exiles left Australia in haste due to the pandemic.

With still a couple of days to run of his 14-day self-isolation, the 20-year-old former Glenavon player joked that he feels like Andy Dufresne from the prison movie Shawshank Redemption with his cooked dinners being left outside his bedroom door.

Burns still has a year of his contract to run with Scottish Premier League club, Hearts – but, like every professional footballer, he doesn’t know what the future holds.

“I’m just trying to stay as fit as I can to get a head start for next season,” said the affable defender.

“Next year is a big year for me as this is my last year of my Hearts contract. I don’t know what the future holds. From a Hearts perspective, things are a bit up in the air at the minute, especially with the prospect of relegation and whether players would leave and what cuts would be made.

“You wouldn’t know what way it would leave me. There’s a new manager there who wasn’t there when I went out on loan to Newcaste Jets (last September). I just want to play.

“I wouldn’t want just to sit on the bench at Hearts and take my money. I don’t want to go out on loan again next year, I’d rather be at a club and get a good pre-season under me because it’s hard going out on loan because you’re not the club’s player.”

He added: “Hearts is a fantastic club with huge potential and if I got into the team that would be great exposure from a Northern Ireland perspective, especially with the Euros rescheduled for 2021 but also with the potential of moving on to see how high I could get.”

Burns hated the way his time down under ended so abruptly, but he hopes one day to return and play in the A League again.

“I absolutely loved my year in Australia and I was surprised how good the standard was. I think if I was older I might go back to Australia.”

On what the future holds for football, Burns thinks there will be lasting consequences of the pandemic.

“I can see a lot of clubs going into real financial trouble,” he said.

“There is no way you’ll have 50,000 people packed into a stadium for a long time. I still think games would have to be played behind closed doors for a while.”