NO football, no job, nowhere to go. This is the world Mark Bradley shares with countless others in a time of unprecedented crisis.
As a substitute primary school teacher without a full-time position, the Tyrone forward is effectively excluded from the safety net containing emergency government funding packages for workers.
Despite a regular working pattern, he finds himself without support, and with time on his hands to gaze into an uncertain future.
Since completing a post-graduate teaching course (PGCE) at Liverpool Hope University last summer, Bradley has seldom been without a day’s work, delivering the curriculum mainly at St Mary’s PS, Pomeroy and St Mary’s PS, Killyclogher.
But the closure of all schools due the coronavirus pandemic changed all that.
“It will be September or October by the time the next pay cheque comes in, so it’s a long stint without income.
“And when you can’t work from home, and you can’t go out of the house, there’s no way of earning, but that’s obviously not the most important thing right now,” he said.
“But I suppose I’m lucky in that my expenditure isn’t that high. I’m living at home, so I don’t have a house or mortgage to worry about. It could be a lot worse.”
Efforts are being made behind the scenes to negotiate the provision of some assistance for those in Bradley’s position, offering hope that the situation may improve in the weeks ahead.
“Looking at emails from the teachers union, there’s a possibility that the board might give us an average of what we would have worked.
“That would be great, if we were to get an average based on the previous month’s work. But that’s not guaranteed, that’s just in a letter written to the Minister of Education recently.
“For the time being, there’s no income, and there’s quite a few people in the same situation.”
But the Red Hand playmaker feels he’s making a decent fist of coping with a drastic shift in a work-life balance that had been providing stability and satisfaction.
“You always want what you can’t have. When you’re working, you always wish you had a day to do nothing, and then when you’re doing nothing, you wish you were working.
“But I have found that if I have a routine, and I stick by that every day, the day will fly.
“I get up and do some yoga, and I have started to learn Spanish, and I’m learning to play the guitar, doing these with online courses.”
Healy Park stands silent on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons, the gates are locked at Tyrone’s Garvaghey training complex, and a return to action seems a long way off.
But mental and physical health are a priority for a group of players who remain on a preparatory footing for Championship football at some stage of 2020.
Training, albeit in an almost recognisable and largely alien form, continues in a lonely but strangely comforting fashion.
“We have got our set programme sent out to us, it’s mainly about running, and if you can get some gym equipment to work on.
“A lot of people don’t have the gym equipment at their house, but fitness shouldn’t really be a problem, for you can run as much as you can, and that’s a silver lining.
“I have enough equipment, it’s not a complete gym, but it’s enough to get me by. It covers the basics, and then I’m surrounded by fields, so there’s no lack of running space here.
“And everyone has a ball, so you would expect to see the skills level of everyone increase.”
Bradley (25) took a year out last year to pursues further studies in Liverpool, and his return to the Tyrone colours has been interrupted by injuries which restricted his involvement in the five NFL games that have been played.
The intervention of Covid-19 has placed further obstacles in front of the Killyclogher clubman’s efforts to rediscover the form that made him one of the stand-out performers in the Red Hands’ run to the All-Ireland final in 2018.
“I have been quite unfortunate, because I have got quite a few niggles. I think it may be because the intensity levels while I was in Liverpool went quite low, and then I came back in, and although you feel refreshed, the intensity spikes through the roof again.
“I have been hit with these niggly injuries, but now there’s plenty of time for everybody with those injuries to get them sorted and cleared up.
“But no-one knows when this whole fiasco will finish, so it’s a case of getting from day to day at the minute.
“It’s extremely strange to have seven nights of the week where you have nothing to do.
“We’re so used to four or five nights a week dedicated to that, and you absolutely miss it.
“There’s times when you get home from work and you’re a wee bit tired, and you find it hard enough to motivate yourself, but when you’re there, it’s great. You miss seeing everyone, you miss training.”
