Jordon Forster: Ex-Hibs defender reflects on coronavirus impact, Dundee revival and impact of Hearts loanee Christophe Berra

Interruption of season has come at wrong time for centre-half
Jordon Forster is enjoying life at Dundee. Pic: SNSJordon Forster is enjoying life at Dundee. Pic: SNS
Jordon Forster is enjoying life at Dundee. Pic: SNS

These are surreal times for all of humanity. Professional football players were among the first groups of people in Britain to have their daily working lives directly interrupted by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic after top-level sporting events were suspended last week.

Accustomed to training intensely on a daily basis in preparation for a match at the weekend, footballers across the country are currently in limbo, effectively thrust into an unplanned close-season with no indication at present of when any semblance of normal service will be allowed to resume.

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“We’re basically playing it by ear at the moment,” Jordon Forster, the former Hibs defender, told the Evening News. “We’re just taking it day by day, trying to maintain fitness and looking after ourselves as best we can. It’s a really hard situation to explain. It doesn’t feel real. We’ve just been told football’s now stopped and we don’t know when we’ll be playing again. Everything’s just been shut down all of a sudden and it’s a really weird feeling. It’s not really sunk in yet.”

Terrible timing

Forster currently plays for Dundee, one of several clubs for whom the shutdown has arrived at a particularly inopportune time. Following a poor first half to the season, the Dens Park side had put together a promising six-game unbeaten run featuring five matches in a row without conceding a goal and appeared to be timing their form spurt nicely ahead of their likely participation in the end-of-season play-offs. Currently third in the Scottish Championship, Dundee will have no obvious claim to promotion if the season has to be terminated as it stands.

“It’s extremely frustrating because we’ve been playing a lot better over the last six games, keeping clean sheets and picking up good results,” said Forster. “In a football context, this is a harder situation for teams who have been doing well because momentum is such a big thing in this game. When you’re losing, trying to win becomes really difficult. But when you’re winning games, you want the games to keep coming thick and fast. You want to be playing Saturday-Tuesday as much as possible.

“The season as a whole hasn’t been good enough for us but the way things were going recently, it was starting to look positive for us with regard to hitting form in the lead-up to the play-offs. There was a real bit of optimism building and it’s frustrating that that momentum has just been stopped with no indication of when we’re going to be able to play again, and if we are going to be able to play again this season at all. I’m a big believer that whatever is going to be will be. You can only worry about things you can control - and this situation is definitely outwith our control.”

The Berra effect

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Dundee’s upturn in form prior to the shutdown coincided with the arrival on loan of veteran Hearts centre-back Christophe Berra, who has been playing in a three-man defence with Forster and Josh Meekings. Forster, 26, has enjoyed playing alongside a former Scotland centre-back nine years his senior. “Big Christophe has done well for us,” said Forster. “He’s got a lot of experience and he’s played at a high level so it’s good for defenders like myself to play alongside him. You can learn loads from a guy like that. We’re similar types of players, we both like to defend first and foremost. We pride ourselves on clean sheets and things were going reasonably well for us before the shutdown.”

Finally over the injuries

Forster is able to use this unplanned break in play to reflect on a two-year period when he finally appears to have banished the persistent injury problems that hindered him throughout his early 20s and ultimately led to his Hibs career fizzling out almost three years ago. Since recovering from a ruptured Achilles’ that he suffered shortly after leaving Easter Road in summer 2017, Forster has been injury free and able to play regularly over the past two seasons with Cheltenham Town and then Dundee. “I was thinking the other day about how well things have been going for me recently in terms of playing consistently,” he said. “In the early part of my career, I struggled to play a number of games on a consistent basis but I think, give or take the odd wee niggle, I’ve now played about 60-odd games over the past two seasons without any real issues.

“I feel the best I’ve ever felt physically and mentally. I take a lot of pride in my performance and I feel like over the past couple of years I’ve found a way of managing my body that works well. I don’t think I’ve missed a game through injury for two years now so long may it continue.”

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