No room at the south-coast inn for ex-Portsmouth and Barnsley favourite Conor Chaplin

And the former Pompey favourite revealed there was no room at the inn to spend lockdown on the south coast.

Games will take place with no spectators present should the season get the green light to recommence amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Fans may not be allowed to attend matches again until October 1, although Pompey chief executive Mark Catlin revealed that’s a date he's not heard.

Chaplin stressed that results can be swung by the atmosphere sitting in the stands.

And with basement-side Barnsley in a dogfight to avoid relegation from the Championship, the striker believes having no supporters inside Oakwell would be a big blow.

Speaking to the Barnsley Chronicle, Chaplin said: ‘I don’t see how you can play games behind closed doors and I don’t really understand why it’s even being talked about. If fans aren’t allowed in, I don’t see why players would be allowed to play games and have to put themselves in that position. Some of us will be worried about the risk.

‘Also, if there’s football without fans, it takes away 90 per cent of the enjoyment and 100 per cent of the atmosphere. Games can be swung by fans so you would be taking away such a big part of the game.

‘I don’t really agree with it but money rules the roost in terms of whether the season will finish or not and, I guess, that will be the overriding factor. That is sad but it is the way the game has gone.

‘When people say ‘no fans’ they maybe don’t realise that quite a lot of people will still be gathered in one place including all the medical staff and ambulance staff.'

Chaplin's approaching two years since leaving his boyhood club.

The Pompey academy graduate was sold to Coventry for £500,000 in August 2018, before he moved to Barnsley last summer.

He bagged a consolation goal for the Tykes in their 4-2 FA Cup fourth-round defeat at Fratton Park in January.

During the suspension of the season, Chaplin’s been forced to remain in Yorkshire – due to a lack of space at his Worthing family home.

He added: ‘I am at my place near Leeds. I did go back down south but there wasn’t much room at the inn. I have all my gym equipment up here. I am just keeping busy with exercising and Zoom calls with the staff and the players. But I am a bit frustrated.

‘The day-to-day life of being a footballer is what you miss the most, being with the boys throughout the week. You can’t recreate that and there’s a bit of void.

‘There are much bigger things to think about at the moment but, from a selfish point of view – and the fans probably share these feelings – we really miss football.

‘Even with the games on TV throughout the week, it takes up so much of your life so, when you don’t have that to fill up that time, you are searching for other things to do.

‘I have some 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles from charity shops that I am working my way through at the moment.’