Livingston boss Gary Holt says he will have to ease the players back into training when they return on Monday - and likened the lay-off to an entire squad recovering from a long-term injury.
The former Scotland international midfielder said: "These are unprecedented times and although all the lads have been on fitness programmes, which is great, it’s not the same as training.
“When someone comes back from a long-term injury, you have to take things slowly. This is almost the same as the whole squad having been injured long-term so we’ll have to ease them into things and then take it from there.
“The lads are all keen to get back out there and see their pals too, but we might have to tone things down a wee bit .
“We’ve got a provisional date of August 1 to work towards in terms of there being games but everything is still up in the air a wee bit.”
The boss, who guided Livi to the second-highest finish in the club’s history as they claimed fifth place in last season’s Premiership, is hopeful that a lack of turnover within the squad will serve as a bonus.
Steven Lawless and Ricki Lamie are the only players with significant game-time who departed over the summer while Ayr United’s Alan Forrest is so far the only new arrival.
He said: “It’s good that there’s been no massive overhaul to the squad which hopefully makes it easier after such a long break but at the same time we’re always looking for ways to improve the squad.
“There’s no passengers at this club so if the right person becomes available we’ll take a look and it might have to be a case of some moving on as well.”
