Heather Large: Relishing the news football is back

It's great that clubs and officials have found a safe way to work towards completing the current season after several months in limbo.

Although it's a shame for supporters that matches, understandably, will have to be played behind closed doors.

But as a Wolves fan it's been great to see photos of players back in training and eager to pick up where they left off in March.

I think very few supporters would have wanted this year's campaigns to be abandoned altogether unless the risks had been deemed too high.

Everyone understood that in a global pandemic that has seen thousands of people lose their lives, football is not a priority. People's health and safety is.

So pausing the season was the only option. But that doesn't mean I haven't missed going to matches and I'm glad a decision to end this year's campaign prematurely wasn't made, like it had been with some of the lower leagues.

Part of me still feels it's a little risky and if there is a second wave of Covid-19 it's likely that the season will have to be written off for good.

But I'm looking forward to seeing a little slice of normal life returning, albeit in a different format to what we are all used to.

I imagine Liverpool fans, whose side are set to clinch a first Premier League title, are definitely all in favour of football restarting.

But possibly supporters following clubs languishing towards the bottom of the two leagues may have felt a little differently.

For my club the wait has been made even more agonising because we were ideally placed to fight for a possible spot in the Champions League.

If the season had ended early we would have all been left thinking 'what if' and it would have been hugely disappointing for the players who have given it their all since the opening fixture.

And at the moment we are also keeping our fingers crossed that we will get to see our players complete their Europa League campaign.

Nuno’s men are currently 1-1 with Olympiacos after the first leg of their last-16 tie, which was a controversial meeting because it was played behind closed doors in Greece in mid-March despite Wolves' requests for it to be postponed because of concerns with the spread of coronavirus.

Discussions about whether the contest can return and if so what format is will take place in are still going ahead.

I'm sure all Wolves fans will be gutted if it can no longer go-ahead and again we would be left wondering what could have been if games had resumed.

But at the moment we have the return of league action to look forward to and there's not long to wait now with the first games in the top flight due to be played on June 17 and the second tier following suit on June 20.

Although no fans will be going through the turnstiles, all remaining Premier League fixtures will be shown on television with discussions still taking place about coverage of the Championship.

This is good news not just for those supporters who regularly attend but also for those supporters who may not normally have the opportunity to because of their financial situation or other commitments.

But if football isn't your thing, horse racing and snooker are also back in action after the Government said competitive sport could return.

Despite all title, promotion or relegation deciders being played out without fans filling the stands in the stadiums, the restart is a small step in the right direction especially when life has been disrupted in ways that were unimaginable just a few months ago.

At the moment it feels like there's still a long way to go before we will be back at Molineux.

Over the past few months the priority has been to find a safe way to restart the 2019/20 season and there are many different theories on when crowds may return.

For me it's hard to imagine it happening this side of Christmas and even when the grounds reopen to supporters, it's likely that the numbers will be greatly reduced.

So for now I'm just going to relish the fact that football on TV is still better than no football at all and will just have to wait a bit longer to see what the future holds.