Republic of Ireland's United States-based international Denise O'Sullivan is relishing a return to action in the near future at both club and international level.
The Cork native is on the books at North Carolina Courage in the US' National Women's Soccer League, a division which is aiming to return to action in June with a month-long tournament in the state of Utah, while Ireland will be back in qualifier action in September.
Speaking to Jacqui Hurley on RTÉ Radio One's Sunday Sport, the forward, who has returned to training with her club, explained what the coronavirus lockdown situation was like where she is based.
"I'd say it's fairly similar to Ireland. Everywhere was closed for a good few months and it's starting to ease down now," she said.
"Restaurants are starting to open up - you can sit outside [but] you can't sit inside really yet. Coffee places and all that are starting to open up.
"I'm back with the team now and we've been training individually for the past few months in pairs and now I'm back, we're in groups of eight and it's going well. It's starting to ease down, thank God."
O'Sullivan added that she has missed the dynamic with her team-mates "a lot" during the lockdown in North Carolina but is now able to enjoy the added competitive edge that training together, as opposed to alone, can bring.
The league season had been due to begin in April and while O'Sullivan had made it back in time for pre-season, the scale of the situation in the US hit home.
"I literally got back three days before pre-season," she said.
"So I was expecting to go back and that everything would be normal. But then I got a text to say 'training is cancelled'. About a week later, I think lockdown came in and everywhere closed down, training was cancelled.
"It was pretty weird and I was just home basically the whole time.
"It was a weird situation but I think everyone's in the same boat so we're all in it together."
The team have undergone tests for the virus since returning to training and will be tested again on Monday as the clock ticks towards June's return to action in Utah.
"We're going to be tested every single week until we leave to go and play the tournament," O'Sullivan added.
"And then we'll be tested every three days, I think, once we get to Utah."
She added that among some players, there were "mixed emotions" regarding the Utah tournament, although players did have a phonecall with the league to gauge their views as well as a survey.
"But for our team, the culture is we just want to play," said O'Sullivan.
"First and foremost, everyone's health is really important but I think the [tournament] format they have it set out very well and we'll be tested all the time.
"I think we're going to get our own chartered flight over there, so we won't be around people and then we're going to stay in a NWSL village where all the teams will stay in one village.
"So we won't be around anyone basically and obviously the games, I don't think there are going to be fans there either. I'm pretty excited for it. First we were like, 'Oh, we don't know about this, it's a bit mad isn't it' but I think everyone's excited now that everyone's on board."
O'Sullivan also expressed delight at confirmation that Ireland's remaining European Championship qualifiers will take place before the end of the year, with the team having made a strong start to the campaign and gathered priceless momentum prior to the abrupt postponements caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
"Absolutely delighted. I didn't even expect it really. I just got a message on Whatsapp and it showed the fixtures," she said.
"It's been scary not knowing if anything's going to happen and because we've been on such a roll with the Irish team and then this big break, it's really exciting to get the news that we're going to be playing in September."
