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Dejan Lovren is counting the days of being cooped up inside his home during the coronavirus lockdown, and admits it's been a mental battle to train alone.
"It hasn't been easy as we have been locked up in our homes for 46 days now," the Liverpool defender told Saturday's edition of Balkan sports daily Sportske Novosti, according to Reuters.
"The psychological aspect is the most difficult to overcome," he continued. "I work out on my own as much as I can, I kick the ball around a bit with my son on our lawn, but training with the team is totally different."
Liverpool boasted a commanding 25-point lead atop the Premier League table before English football was halted, meaning Lovren was on the verge of capturing his first title since he won Croatia's top flight with Dinamo Zagreb in 2009.
The 30-year-old has been determined to maintain his fitness for when football returns and the Reds can wrap up their Premier League title, but he opened up on the difficulties of life away from Liverpool's Melwood training base.
"I try to stay motivated any way I can. I get up in the morning and tell myself, 'I am going to get knackered in training today,' and at least I've managed to lose some weight," Lovren said.
"But I've also lost some mass on my legs because there is no substitute for a 90-minute team training session. You can't do an indoor exercise on your legs for 90 minutes," he added.
With the exception of France's Ligue 1 and the Netherlands' Eredivisie, most major leagues in Europe are trying to arrange a return to action despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Isolating players from their families and playing matches at neutral venues have been touted as potential ways to restart seasons, but Lovren is concerned about encountering a considerable workload as the sport tries to make up for lost time.
"I hope (UEFA president) Aleksander Ceferin and all the other people from UEFA and FIFA will come up with a solution so that we don't get into a situation of having to play 15 games in 30 days," he shared.
"We need time off. This hasn't really been time off because the players will need to recover mentally from the pandemic and the resultant quarantine."
