­­­-Digicel Fijian men’s football head coach, Flemming Serritslev has asked members of the national training squad to keep up with their own training during this 14-day containment.

This was after the national team’s weekly camp to be held at the Fiji Football Association’s Academy in Ba was cancelled because of the new cases of COVID-19 recorded, last week.

Serritslev, who is still in Ba told SUNsports yesterday that fitness is crucial in these 14 days of containment.

“My advice to players is to maintain their physical level of fitness since we cannot train with the ball,” he said.

“They should be in good shape and they should continue to maintain that shape. This is because we cannot really say when this is going to be over and when we are playing our next games. We will have to start from scratch.”

He added that district coaches should monitor their players regarding their daily training programmes.

Serritslev joined last year at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic which was a big challenge for him.

However, he was impressed with the level of football showcased at last year’s national league competition along with the three tournaments.

He said: “This is a huge setback for the whole of Fiji and we should take heed of advices.

“This year’s Digicel Premier League started on a much better level compared to last year.

“The fitness level is there and they were in good shape.

“The pace of the games last year was very slow as there was less time for players to get into shape.

“The fitness level now is much better I hope they are really training individually during this time. This is because we can pick up from where we left off and continue with that standard and pace of the game,”Serritslev added.

He also hopes that this would not affect their preparation towards the FIFA World Cup qualifiers set for January next year.

The next national camp would depend on the status of the COVID-19 containment and Government’s decision to lift restrictions on sporting events.