Republic of Ireland International Amber Barrett joined the Football Show on Off The Ball from Germany on Thursday evening.

Barrett who plays her club football with Cologne has spent the entire in lockdown in Germany as the virus really hit following the Republic of Ireland's game against Montenegro.

Amber Barrett and her teammates restarted team training just three weeks ago, initially in small groups, before her first game back against Wolfsburg.

Football in a post-COVID-19 lockdown world was always bound to be very different, the handshake pictured above will be her last on the pitch for quite some time.

Barrett explained some of the matchday measures in place, including using multiple dressing rooms.

"The match day is a little bit different," says the Cologne striker, "when we played Wolfsburg we were split into four different dressing rooms.

"There were just four or five players in each dressing room. That was something that maybe got lost a little bit in translation. That was something I didn't expect.

"Then when we go onto the pitch, the celebrations, as we saw from watching the men's Bundesliga, the rest is literally as it is.

"You are separated out and you have to wear a mask when you are off the field. Yes, it took a while to adapt to, but watching the men's league for the first couple of weeks made it easier.

A lot of running

Fitness was an issue on the return to full training and matches despite following the team training protocols during the lockdown.

"There are just things you can't replicate on your own," Amber Barrett said, "At the start, for everybody, it was going to be the same. we'd done a lot of running in the nine weeks we were off and everyone kept themselves in really good shape.

"It was going to be a challenge going from that straight back in, but so far so good. We've managed it well so far. but the thing now is to manage the recovery.

"With a quick turnaround, so if we play today (Thursday) and the next game is on Sunday, So we know that whatever way training goes over the next few days, we have to tailor it to that.

"That's something that every team has to deal with, you mentioned injuries, but that's just a part of sport, injuries happen all the time."

Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!

Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.