CHERRIES skipper Simon Francis has urged his team-mates to “stay professional” despite not knowing when football is set to resume.

The Dorset club have not featured in match action since a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool on March 7, with the coronavirus pandemic set to suspend the game until at least April 30.

Defeat to the runaway Premier League leaders meant Cherries are currently 18th in the table, inside the relegation zone with no immediate chance of escaping the bottom three.

Cherries had been set to host Crystal Palace on March 14 before being sent home from training the previous day after the game was postponed.

Francis told the Daily Echo: “Certainly we were preparing for the Crystal Palace game, which was going to be the biggest game of our season.

“I think if we’d won that game we’d have been out of the bottom three and hopefully would have gone on a run.

“Now it’s almost been put to the back of our minds because first and foremost it’s about when we’re going to be back in training and can we even set a date for that game?

“They’ve said the end of April (to resume games) now, but who knows if that will stay the same or change again.

“But we’ll have to adapt accordingly and have to stay professional, that’s the biggest thing. Train when we can, keep fitness levels up.

“It will be hard because you just can’t replicate match intensity and things like that unless you’re actually out there on the training field or playing games.

“You can try and be as fit as you want in the gym and on the treadmill and on the bike but it just doesn’t compare to being out there.

“So the longer we wait, the more training we have to do, almost like a mini pre-season to get back fit again for the finish of the league.”

Cherries and other Premier League clubs will gather again on Friday to discuss the next steps amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

“It’s nine games that we’ve got to save our season and that’s the important thing,” added Francis.

“We just hope that still goes ahead and we give ourselves the best chance to prove our worth in the Premier League.”