Parejo asks his teammates not to put on weight during quarantine

Dani Parejo, Valencia's captain, has asked his teammates not to put on weight during self-isolation and says everyone has to take self-isolation seriously or it will never end. The Spanish midfielder has implored his teammates to put in extra effort during their quarantine after an outbreak saw 35% of the first team staff test positive for coronavirus.

"You have to be 100% because to win a game, it takes a lot and you have to take this seriously," he said on the club's official website. "Not just training, but eating and arriving at the weight you were, this requires training and a lot of sacrifice."

The midfielder admits that they "can't go out for a run but we have bikes at home, to add to functional exercises and the strength to look after your fitness."

Parejo says everyone needs to take coronavirus warning seriously

"We don't know when we will restart the competition," he says. "Everything is up in the air but when we do, we can't have excuses."

Parejo also says that society needs to heed the warnings and measures by the government "or in the end, this will never end."

"You have to be realistic," he says. "You can only leave the house to go to the supermarket or the pharmacy but you can't leave for anything else. I would like to go to the park with my kids. Right now, we have to come together as a team and take it seriously or we won't get ahead of it," he said.