Ronan Curtis: My mate Andy Cannon has beaten coronavirus - now he's raring to go for Portsmouth

That’s the message from Ronan Curtis, who has kept in constant touch with his close friend during the postponement of football.

In March, Cannon was among five Blues players who tested positive for the global pandemic.

The others affected were James Bolton, Haji Mnoga, Ross McCrorie and Sean Raggett – with thankfully all having now recovered.

Before Curtis returned to Ireland for a month, he kept a close eye on the quarantined Cannon, delivering meals and going on shopping errands.

And he has revealed the midfield recruit from Rochdale has now fully recovered and in fine spirits ahead of football’s potential return.

Curtis said: ‘Andy is all good, he is doing well.

‘I’ll be glad to see my mate again, it has been a long time. Hopefully we will be back together.

‘He said it might have come from the Peterborough or Arsenal game, perhaps he caught it off them. He could have caught it anywhere, though, such as walking outside your front door and touching anything.

‘After being diagnosed, I spoke to him about it and he was a bit upset, he thought he might have given it to others. So I was making him dinners and going out shopping for him, getting headache tablets and cough medicine.

‘He couldn’t go out the house during his 14 days isolation. No-one was with him, so I was helping out and speaking to him every hour or two to keep him in a positive mind.

‘Andy’s one of my mates and I would do anything for my mates.

‘It was a pretty bad situation and he was a bit sad about it, but is all right now. He has been flat out training so his head’s in the right place now, which is good.’

Curtis returned to the south coast on Saturday and has been at the training ground on occasions, observing the required social distancing.

The likes of Marcus Harness have also been using facilities at the Copnor Road base during the last week.

In the meantime, Cannon and Curtis are motivating each other during the wait for football’s potential resumption.

Curtis added: ‘I was lucky enough not to catch coronavirus, but you never know.

‘Andy’s in the right frame of mine now and training every day raring to go, like myself. He’s also ringing me every day and we chat for a couple of hours on the phone just to keep our minds ticking over.

‘My family is back over in Ireland, so me and Andy keep in contact and bounce off each other. It’s good to have someone like that around me.’