Burnley boss Sean Dyche urging his players to stay 'locked in' to the current Premier League season

As Dyche said last week in Express Sport, he feels there is "a thirst from all parties to get the season played".

But, with the country still under lockdown for at least the next couple of weeks or so, it remains to be seen when it will be safe to return to training, never mind playing out the remaining nine games.

All football below the National League has been expunged for the season, while Scottish football below the SPL has voted on a resolution to finish the campaign.

Burnley haven't played since the 1-1 draw with Spurs at Turf Moor on March 7th, but Dyche is trying to ensure his players are mentally ready to resume when they get the green light.

Speaking to Kelly Cates, Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville on Sky Sports' The Football Show this morning, Dyche said: "Our players are quite open-minded, I had a Zoom call with them the other day, I think there were about 14 or 15 of them, and it was a general chat through.

"I think our lads are quite flexible, they have a lot of advisors now, they have a different view from different opinions, but when I spoke to my players, they all seemed to be quite balanced about it, what will be, will be.

"Regarding the advice from the Premier League, that's the key, the start. If we can get a start date and work backwards from that, then we can start explaining to the players.

"At the minute, there's no outcome to their training, they're just training and waiting.

"Let's put it this way, we've told the players, make sure mentally you stay locked in, make sure you're thinking, your prime thoughts, other than health, is to make sure you're thinking the season will go ahead.

"We're saying 'just stay engaged with it', because when it comes round, the likelihood is the chance is there's a short pre-season to get ready, and we want to be mentally ready, because it still is a real season.

"Even though it's going to be a considerably different season, however it's finished, it is still a real season, it's an active season and means a lot, so we have to be ready to take it on."

The clubs, as with the general public, await the go-ahead from the government for social distancing measures to be eased or ended altogether, and Dyche accepts we are all in their hands at the moment: "We are literally under the rules of the government at the moment, we're in lockdown, when that starts releasing, we'll be given guidelines probably through the government into the Premier League, through the chairman and CEOs back into us.

"How that then opens up, does it open up in small groups, with constant testing through the teams on a two or three-day basis? We'll have to wait and see.

"At the moment the players are doing distance programmes, we are ramping that up slightly, we are building that up, adding in the GPS units and just monitoring them closely.

"We had a bit of foresight when this first really started, we thought it was going to go on longer so actually gave the players a 10-14 breakdown period, where we said 'just make sure everyone is well, look after your families, don't worry about anything, take a load off', and then we started building back up from there.

"We've tried to look at it with a longer view, and so far that's worked. but we haven't got any intelligence on when it is actually going to go back to normal.

"When we get that, we will have some guidelines, I'm sure on what we should be doing and are allowed to, and we'll work within that."

Dyche, as he admitted last week, would prefer for the season to be ended, whether that is behind closed doors or not, rather than abandon the campaign to make sure next season begins on schedule, or as close to as possible.

He added: "I think we'd like it to be finished, the virus is obviously a massive effect, but if football can play it's part in giving something back, because football is a powerful thing as we all know, we try and look for that first.

"If we can give something back through the games, even if it is behind closed doors, but beamed out through different media streams, then I think that's got to be a good thing.

"We'd like to finish the season, ideally, it's right and proper to do so, and it gives you a chance to realign yourself for next season knowing it's at least been finished.

"The idea of 'it's not the same' - the world's not the same, we all work around that and find a way of finishing it, ideally.

"If we don't, then it will be a strange one. If you think about it physically, the period the players will have had off, away from a training environment, that in itself changes things.

"By next pre-season, let's imagine it's July time, are we in a massively different place?

"Then it's going into next season, so where do you draw the line of start-stop, and then begin again?

"I think it's in flux. Week by week, we're finding out more knowledge, for me, ideally, if they can find a way of getting it done, I think they should, I think it would be good for the fans, for the people around the world who love football, if it can't, health has to come first, we all know and accept that."