Atherton Collieries manager Brad Cooke has said that his team can’t wait to get back to playing football, but the club likely won’t be entering into any tournament which may arise this summer.

Colls’ Pitching In Northern Premier League season was curtailed by the FA earlier this month, nearly half a year after they last kicked a ball.

Since then, many suggestions have been made in regards to getting games restarted as soon as possible including by way of a tournament competition between clubs in the division, although nothing has been confirmed yet.

If a tournament is played, it is widely expected to be at the discretion of clubs as to whether they join, but Colls manager Cooke says his attention is on the here and now.

“First and foremost, our lads do just want to be playing football and socialising with one another again whether that’s playing between ourselves with five-a-side games and training or whatever,” he said.

“For everyone’s wellbeing, both physical and mental, we just want to get back to kicking a football but in saying that, suggestions of tournaments are just too early at this moment to put anything in place.

“There’s so many hurdles that we need to overcome – not just us but the wider footballing world – before we can actually have fans back in the stadium and be playing.

“Everything now is set on May for that to be able to happen but as I said, there’s loads of hurdles to overcome before that actually arrives so from our point of view, we won’t be organising anything from a tournament perspective.

“Our planning now is geared towards pre-season and a restart date of early August for the new league campaign.”

The Black and Whites now only have a short time to go until they are able to resume training as per the government’s recently revealed exit plan, which will be a big boost to Cooke and his management staff.

Now heading into a third season at the helm, the boss is in the process of creating a solid squad as seen in the few games they did manage to play before this season’s curtailment. Cooke praised his players for their efforts in such trying times.

He said said: “We’re having Zoom calls to catch up with each other and for me to provide updates to the lads.

“In terms of them keeping fit, we do have the option to send out programmes to the players, so we’ve got the tools there, but it depends on the individual as to what they want.

“Most of them have just been doing their own work, and their fitness levels are of a great standard overall.

“In the next few weeks, I’ve got one-to-one sessions with the players to discuss next season and from then, we can really start looking ahead and trying to plan for a successful year.”