West Brom striker Charlie Austin raring to go
Albion striker Charlie Austin is hoping the ‘boring’ solo training sessions soon come to an end as he chases promotion back to the Premier League.
The club haven’t played since March 7, in a 0-0 draw away at Swansea, with the league being suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Baggies sit second in the Championship, a point off leaders Leeds, and with football in the second tier expected to return this season, Austin insists he is raring to go and earn promotion.
“It’s a bit of a strange situation training on your own, it’s boring. The quicker we can get back the better,” he told Paddy Power.
“It was going well – we put ourselves in a position where we can get promoted and get to achieve our goal which we wanted to do at the start of the season.
“Everybody says about fans not being involved and not being there – I totally understand but sometimes they can play a great positive for you but they can also play a negative for you when it’s not going well.
“If you don’t win your first two games for us you start seeing teams sliding up and down the table, it would soon click into gear.
“Look this is the real deal for us as it’s three points at the end of the day.”
Austin revealed in March that he was suffering with acute symptoms that were believed to be consistent with coronavirus.
It came after the forward attended Cheltenham Festival, which came under heat for welcoming more than 60,000 spectators from March 10 to 13.
“First after Cheltenham I was a bit rough – at first I thought it was a hangover and then it was more for the next two, three days I was real rough,” Austin added.
“But I’ve got over that, which I stayed in isolation, and that was fine and then obviously when I came out of that we were in lockdown.
“But we’d had three weeks at home and it was nice to spend time with the wife and the kids because you’re not always at home with football and travelling and that.
“But too much time at home can cause you more problems than what it’s worth.”
Although lockdown has given Austin more time with his family in what would be a crunch time in the footballing calendar, the 30-year-old has also decided to take up gardening to pass the time.
“You know what – I must have lost it. Last Saturday I must be part of a long list of men or women,” he said.
“I was at Wickes at five to seven buying garden paint and 12 bags of 120kg compost.
“Not too sure [it was like the Chelsea Flower Show] probably the Dagenham & Redbridge Flower Show!”
Charlie Austin was speaking on Paddy Power Media’s new podcast, From The Horse’s Mouth.
