Kenny Cunningham was on Tuesday's Football Show where he was critical of the attitude of players during lockdown.
Premier League football is set to return on June 17th although Cunningham has mixed feelings around the game coming back.
"It's been such a negative spin around it, in the last month or so regarding the return of football. Honestly, it's kind of deflated me a little bit," said Cunningham.
"Clearly the majority of the players are keen to get back and play, I'd imagine that's the case. I'd imagine 80% plus of the players are desperate to get back. That would have been the case in my time, I'm sure it's the case now."
Whinging
Cunningham was not impressed with players who were interviewed with concerns over coronavirus restrictions.
"I'm not being funny but every time I switched on that telly," says the former Ireland defender.
"Sky News and Sky Sports, all they were rolling in front of the cameras were players whinging.
"Whinging and 'big concerns,' and how stressed they were, mentally they were struggling and having a real issue with the game coming back."
Seeing and hearing his from players did not sit well with the former Republic of Ireland centre-half.
"It really put a negative spin on it for me." says Cunningham, "I just felt as of it was lopsided totally, in terms of the argument.
"I remember listening to Glenn Murray one morning, I was eating my Bran Flakes and I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"He was talking about, 'I don't think supporters realise that if we go back to the training ground, there's going to be no food. There's going to be no kitchen. Nobody is going to be making our food.'
"I was like 'Am I actually hearing this correctly? Bring a sandwich with you, what's wrong with you?'
"Then not only that, there are no ice baths and our cryogenic chamber won't be available to us after training. Even getting a strapping is not going to be easy.'
"Honest to God, I was scratching my head thinking 'dear oh dear, have we come to this?'
"Hopefully this isn't the attitude of the majority of players, I'm sure it isn't, but this is all we were being fed.
"A lot of players with huge concerns about coming back, 'huge issues' they had in terms of their protection, their health.
"It was too much for me. I got the hump with it to be honest with you. Thankfully, common sense has prevailed."
When considering the case of Troy Deeney seeking to excuse himself from training to protect his child from the virus, Kenny Cunningham felt there was a straightforward option for the Watford player.
"I take the point on Troy Deeney and his young child, a young child has to be protected, but in that situation surely you take yourself out of that environment.
"You book yourself into a hotel, I'm sure he's got enough money in the bank maybe get a second property. There's an easy solution to that, the child's welfare has to take paramount importance, I understand that, but there are obvious solutions."
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