Parkhouse: “Feels as though this is all a Nightmare”

One of Sydney Olympic’s prized new recruits for the 2020 National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s season Adam Parkhouse has described this current COVID-19 situation as a “nightmare” but has vowed to keep ticking over in these hard times.

“To be honest I still feel like it’s not really happening.

“I feel as though it’s a dream (nightmare) that I’m waiting to wake up from.

“Personally, not too much has changed for me apart from football being suspended so just a bit of extra free time each week which is making me a little stir crazy.”

The former Wellington Phoenix high-flyer is known by all of his peers as looking after his body and fitness and this has risen ten-fold since the lockout of the competition.

He has also had a little help from girlfriend and budding footballer Tia Gavin who has assisted in Parkhouse’s training routines.

“Well to begin with I took a little rest for a few days to let my body recover as preseason was fairly tough and pretty full on with games and I feel like I needed a bit of a refresh.

“Pretty much now I have been keeping fit and also spending time with my parents as they got back from holiday just before the COVID-19 issue began.

“Since football was suspended, I have been heading to the gym a lot to work on my strength but now with the gym closures, I’ve had to set up a little home gym to keep myself ticking over.

“Also my girlfriend is really into her fitness too, so doing some training together with her is fun and can give me some much needed company.”

Football has been Parkhouse’s main source of income ever since the start of the 2020 year, so this period has hurt the Olympic star without any matches being played thus far.

“Fortunately, I stopped working at Plus Fitness at the start of the year due to the gym being sold to a new owner and since then I have mainly been focused on football.

“Which means now I have a lot of time on my hands which can be good and bad I guess.”

The introduction of Terry Palapanis as new Olympic coach for the 2020 season brought with it a number of new faces at the club including Parkhouse.

Even though the league has only been three matches in, the winger stated that the team ‘banter’ was what he had missed most since going into self-isolation.

“Mainly being with the squad and the banter around the changing room is what I have missed.

“Also missing game days as they are what I look forward to most each week and an after match pizza which is a tradition I have is being sorely missed.”

Like everyone in the football family, ensuring everyone’s safety and health is on top of the priority list and something the Olympic star has pushed in his message to the NPL NSW fraternity.

“I think everyone just needs to stick together through this tough period.

“We are all in in the same position and no one knows what is going to happen.

“Just staying positive and helping out each other where we can, we can all beat this together.”

Parkhouse keeping himself sane by training on his own during the self-isolation period