Premier League: Liverpool midfielder Wijnaldum looking forward to training return

Premier League and Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum reveals his excitement to be back in training with the rest of the squad. The Premier League clubs took a vote in favour of Step One of the top-flight's Return to Training Protocol under Project Restart. This enabled the players to return to training at their respective club bases and train in small groups to comply with social distancing guidelines.

Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com upon his return to Melwood, the Premier League club's training base, Wijnaldum said,

"I’m really looking forward to that because you know, we all love football, we all love to play football, so we want to play as much as we can."

Premier League leaders Liverpool eagerly await top-flight return

Liverpool midfielder Gini Wijnaldum in action

Until just before the COVID-19 lockdown and the suspension of football, the Premier League club were in the midst of a dream season. A 25-point-lead at the top of the Premier League table, into the knockouts of the Champions League and a shot at an invincible season.

The first of the three scenarios will guarantee them a maiden Premier League title, if it hasn't already. However, they were eliminated by Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid from the UCL at Anfield and lost their first EPL game of the season to Watford.

Liverpool endured a difficult defeat at Anfield

Their dismal EPL performance at Vicarage Road in all likelihood isn't even going to leave a dent on their spotless title chase. However, it is the fact that they couldn't play football after these two disappointing defeats is something that Wijnaldum touched upon.

"Also, the moment and the situation we were in was quite good so it was really hard for us [professionally] that it stopped immediately after the game against Atletico Madrid. In two months we didn’t do something and we are happy that we can start again."

The Liverpool squad led by arguably the best manager in the Premier League, Jürgen Klopp, have kept in touch regularly through the lockdown. The German and his troops have continuously trained via video sessions with the club staff and other players.

3 - Georginio Wijnaldum has scored his 22nd @premierleague goal for Liverpool and Newcastle combined, with this just the third to come away from home. The goal came from Liverpool's first shot on target of the entire match. Gifted. pic.twitter.com/d3fUn8yCfX

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 28, 2019

Now that training is set to resume, Wijnaldum expressed his delight at the prospect of seeing these staff members and players in person. The Dutchman commented,

"It’s still good that we spoke with each other on WhatsApp and in the team sessions on video, but to see them in person and talk to them and have a laugh, that is something different."

The Premier League star says that the prospect of working and playing together as a team once again is something that they all as professionals look forward to. He continued,

"So we all look forward to going back and to play football with each other. I think that’s the thing that we miss the most because now we had to train alone and we couldn’t do that much, but hopefully we can do more and we can play together instead of alone so we are really looking forward to doing things as a team again."

The Premier League's Project Restart plan aims to help the league resume in June along with La Liga Santander and other top European leagues. The EPL have already proposed a plan wherein Premier League clubs play out the remainder of the matches at neutral venues behind closed doors.

The clubs are set to take a vote later this month to decide the future of the Premier League season.