Newcastle United players spent much of the week preparing for the visit of Sheffield United - but it could be some time before they are back in action again because of the coronavirus pandemic.
While adverse weather conditions have led to games being called off in the past, Saturday marked the first time since the outbreak of the Second World War that there was an enforced closure of St James' Park on a match day following the decision to suspend professional football in England until at least April 3.
As of Friday, no Newcastle players or staff had coronavirus or exhibited any symptoms but football operations at the training ground have been shut down for at least two weeks as a precaution.
The training ground was sprayed while the squad had a couple of days off earlier in the week and Steve Bruce and his staff had been speaking in private about what would happen if games were suspended for the last month.
As a result, by the time the confirmation came through on Friday morning that there were to be no games for at least three weeks, individual training programmes had already been prepared for the players.
A number of Newcastle players have since taken to social media, whether it is Twitter or Instagram, to send a message to their followers during this uncertain time.
