Jack Whatmough: Why I put family before football. No regrets about missing Portsmouth's play-off against Oxford United

Approaching nine weeks of age, the household’s newest addition already sleeps through the night.

Having featured for Pompey against Gosport the previous evening, followed by a gym session, Whatmough appreciated the charitable nature of his first born.

Still, with fatherly duties to fulfil on his day off, after waking at 8am and conducting a feed and nappy change, he joined Esme and fiance Demi on a shopping trip.

The 24-year-old prioritised the safety of his young family over training with Pompey at the peak of the coronavirus crisis.

It deprived Kenny Jackett of the popular centre-half for the Blues’ latest play-off bid.

Whatmough, though, stands by his decision.

He told The News: ‘There’s a woman living opposite my mum in Gosport. She caught coronavirus while pregnant and the baby was born with it.

‘This happened after the birth of Esme – and showed me that my decision had been the right one.

‘Demi was classed as high risk. I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if I had passed it onto her and Esme, so I had to make a choice.

‘I put my dad head on very early and decided not to train with my Pompey team-mates. It’s one I will stand by. If I was in that situation again then I would do it again, no problem.

‘That’s when you realise there is more to life than football. If I was to catch coronavirus and pass it onto Demi, who was due so soon, what would be the consequences?’

Within weeks of March’s postponement of the football season amid coronavirus concerns, five members of Pompey’s squad tested positive for the pandemic.

Declaring the Copnor Road-based training ground out of bounds, players maintained fitness in isolation, yet, in mid-May, Pompey sought to step up their fitness regime ahead of a potential return to League One action.

With fiance Demi due to give birth in July, Whatmough felt uncomfortable being asked to return to Hilsea to pair up with a team-mate for sessions.

Handed the option not to attend by a club wary of forcing staff back against their wishes, the 24-year-old respectfully declined.

He was joined by Gareth Evans, whose wife, Hazel, had weeks earlier given birth to son Atlas at QA Hospital and was similarly concerned about possibly passing on coronavirus.

Evans returned to the training ground once twice-weekly testing was implemented and Football League health and safety procedures put into place, as Pompey prepared for a play-off campaign.

Whatmough, however, opted to remain unavailable – ruling him out of Jackett’s promotion plans.

‘We regularly looked at the daily deaths and where the numbers were,’ he added.

‘I remember sitting there one day and it had gone from 700 deaths down to 400, so we were thinking “That’s better”. But 400 people dying in one day because of a virus isn’t a good thing.

‘There were conversations with the midwife and doctors when we were going in for scans. We were told Demi would be high risk because she has iron deficiency.

‘Her immune system is low, it always has been, and would be even worse while pregnant. She struggled to shift a cold during pregnancy – having the virus would make things 10 times worse.

‘From day one she was classed as high risk.

‘We were aware that very few coronavirus cases involve young children. However, a lot of pregnant women were catching it – and, of course, Demi was high risk.

‘During lockdown, we had five lads test positive following that Arsenal FA Cup game, but we were training individually so that wasn’t so much an issue.

‘However, when it came to the point where the club wanted us to go into pairs, I was concerned.

‘No offence to Paul Downing, whose missus is a nurse, but I couldn’t enter that situation considering how Demi was.

‘On the players’ group chat we talked about the changes to the training plan and I mentioned I wasn’t too comfortable with it. Tom Naylor then raised it with the gaffer and I was told I could stay at home.

‘The club were on board with it, the gaffer spoke to me every week or two weeks, asking if I wanted to go in. They were very supportive.

‘With the club putting videos up of players in training, I suppose it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out who was missing.

‘There were a couple of social media comments about me not being there, but I wasn’t really fussed about listening. They can have an opinion on my football, but cannot judge what I will do to protect my partner and daughter. I would never take that.

‘I’ve read messages from people saying they still had to work when their partner was pregnant, so why not me? But they probably didn’t get the option.

‘As a footballer, my employer had said “You don't have to come in”. I had to do it for the sake of Demi and Esme – what people were saying didn’t affect me one bit.’

Whatmough rejoined his team-mates for their August 3 training return ahead of the 2020-21 campaign.

For the defender, it represented a return to the Copnor Road training ground following an absence of four months.

During that time, he maintained daily contact with Pompey fitness coach Jeff Lewis, following a programme consisting of long-distance running and leg weights.

With no reaction to his knee, Whatmough has subsequently been available for the Blues’ pre-season fixtures, featuring in three of the matches.

He was also an unused substitute against Brighton, while last weekend’s Carabao Cup victory at Stevenage saw him occupy the bench once more.

Sean Raggett and Paul Downing are presently Jackett’s preferred centre-half pairing, although Pompey are still searching for another defensive addition.

It leaves Whatmough battling to break into the Blues’ first-team.

He added: ‘I came back from those four months away in good nick, to be fair. It’s a fitness regime which definitely benefited me and Pompey’s staff are excellent.

‘At the moment, I am probably lacking from pre-season minutes in matches, with 180 minutes in total, but not fitness.

‘When you look at it and ask the question whether I went back fit enough, I wouldn't have been able to play 90 minutes in that second match (Totton) if I hadn’t. I know my body well enough and if I wasn’t fit then I couldn’t have done that.

‘I was hoping to get 90 minutes against Gosport on Tuesday night, it would have been the last chance before the season really starts.

‘Unfortunately, the gaffer changed how we were going to line-up. So, after I played the second half, I went to the gym at the Village Hotel and did a leg session there.

‘It’s what I have to do these days, keeping it ticking over and making sure the knee remains strong. My knee feels really good.

‘I wouldn’t have slept after the match anyway, I never do after night games. Instead of sitting in bed doing nothing, I thought I may as well get some gym work in.’

The newly-expanded Whatmough family had watched both of Pompey’s play-off semi-final fixtures with Oxford from their Port Solent home.

The defender's career has been devastated by serious injury since breaking into the first-team under caretaker boss Andy Awford in November 2013.

Yet, on this occasion, Whatmough’s absence was entirely on his own terms – with no regrets.

He added: ‘Esme was born on July 2 – the Thursday evening – and I had a coronavirus test on the Saturday after the first leg.

‘The idea was I would return to training on the Tuesday, if given the all clear.

‘Unfortunately, with what happened at the Kassam Stadium, our season finished after that. So nobody was training.

‘Obviously you want to be involved in the play-offs, that’s what you get paid for and that’s what being a footballer is about.

‘I would have loved to have been there, playing in those games or being around it, but it was a decision I made 4-5 weeks prior to that.

‘I had to make it for both Demi and Esme. There is no way I regret it.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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