Adam Webster full of admiration for his mum and her fellow NHS workers

His mum Mandy has worked for the NHS for more than 35 years and is part of the national effort to tackle the health crisis.

“My mum has been in the NHS for most of her working life," said Webster. "I know the stress she is under normally so now is even worse.

“She is a research nurse specialising in cancer treatment, but she is currently with the Covid-19 teams. She is not on the frontline but helping to see what works best in terms of treatment for patients.

"I check in on her most days, and she is okay. She is doing more hours but everyone in the NHS is, they are doing a brilliant job.”

This weekend will mark six weeks since Albion were last in action in a 0-0 draw at Wolves, but Webster admits that he has adjusted to life without the daily routine of training and games better than he expected.

“I wouldn’t say I am enjoying it, but I am coping fine,” he said. “I am trying to train as normally as possible and have actually been a bit more active than I would be.

“Normally I’d get home early in the afternoon after training and sit on the sofa for the rest of the day. But I hardly watch any TV until the evening and the dog has really benefited from lots of walks!

“We have 3-4 Zoom calls a week as a squad for a workout or bike session and I have done some running on my own. We obviously have to keep fit as much as we can for when the season does start again. It gives me something to look forward to every day.

“I have always enjoyed training. When the season finishes I won’t plan to do anything for two weeks but 10 days into that I am itching to do some exercise so motivating myself to keep fit is never a problem.

“It is difficult not knowing how long it will be before we play again and I miss playing a lot - you don’t realise how much until it gets taken away from you. We’re itching to get back and hopefully it won’t be too long.”

During his downtime Webster is learning Spanish and is more than three weeks into a course where he spends 30-45 minutes each day picking up the language.

“I watched subtitled programmes on Netflix like Narcos and walked around the house pretending I can speak Spanish so my fiancé told me I should learn the language. I have really enjoyed it. Hopefully by the time I go back I will be able to understand the Spanish speakers in our squad!

“I have picked up the basics quite well although I am nowhere near fluent yet. I did make the mistake a couple of days ago of scrolling down the app and realised how far I have got to go so it could take me a while but it’s good fun.”

Along with the rest of the Albion squad, Webster has donated to local NHS charities during the coronavirus crisis and is part of the #PlayersTogether initiative launched by Premier League stars last week to raise money for NHS charities.

“The club have been brilliant too in all their initiatives, right from the first day of this when they said they would still pay their matchday staff,” he said.

“As players we’re in a fortunate position to be able to help. A couple of weeks ago footballers seem to be getting quite a lot of stick and I felt the criticism was a bit below the belt because problems were on a bigger scale than what footballers could do. But I think people now recognise what we have done and what we are doing for the community.”

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