Rockdale Ilinden’s inspirational skipper Daniel Petkovski has made no secret about his personal struggle with COVID-19 locking down almost everything in society but has remained up-beat on keeping himself fit and healthy to continue the charge in the National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s competition when it kicks off once more.
The proud lllinden clubman stated that the club under new manager Steve Zoric had a great 2020 preseason but this unforeseen interruption has certainly hit the squad.
“I won’t lie, this has affected me mentally more than anything.
“We had such a great preseason and worked extremely hard to get to where we are at.
“We started our NPL NSW Men’s season very promising as well.
“For it to be taken away from us so suddenly really hurt me, my teammates and of course the whole of football.”
Asked what he missed most about our beautiful game, Petkovski replied.
“Training with the boys and going into battle with them every single week against our respective opponents is what I really miss most.”
Petkovski has been busy, like so many other footballers in the same boat, training on his own.
“I’ve continued to train on my own and that’s consisted of running at my local park as well as doing plenty of laps in my pool which has kept me in shape.”
Away from football, Petkovski is a kindergarten teacher and luckily for him, his job has not been affected as much as so many others who have been put in an unfortunate situation.
“I am lucky at the moment my job hasn’t been affected as of yet as I work at a public school.
“There will obviously be down time but that gives us more opportunity to spend time with loved ones as well as keeping fit and healthy.”
Petkovski had a simple message to the NPL NSW public about staying safe and staying at home.
“We are all dying for the football to come back, however our priority is to keep healthy and safe, make sure we are doing the right things to avoid the virus spreading and supporting one another through this tough period.
“Stay calm, stay at home and keep a positive mindset.”
Petkovski shown keeping himself fit and training at his local park