Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford a shining star of lockdown - Sue Smith

For those of us who love the game, it is another small step towards normality. For me, it means getting back to work.

A month of solid televised football sounds like heaven to me!

I will be interested to see if teams like Leeds United and Sheffield United can rediscover their form, and if the likes of Hull City and Barnsley can build much-needed momentum in this really intense period.

Leeds and Sheffield United are on the brink of huge achievements and I just hope that by the time their seasons are over lockdown restrictions have been lifted a little further to allow supporters to enjoy those celebrations with their friends and family.

Rotherham United celebrated League One promotion on a Zoom call together but it just is not the same.

Not that it has all been bad.

As a former professional footballer-turned-pundit, this period has been the longest I have spent at home since my schooldays and it has allowed me to spend a lot more time with family. I am sure the players will have appreciated that.

Hopefully, the game has a better appreciation now for how important fans in the stadium are. With everyone watching on television, matches will just not be the same, as we have seen in the Bundesliga.

If the women’s game has to come back behind closed doors next season I don’t think it would have a big impact on them, but most male professionals have played in front of big crowds all their careers, and will miss the fans badly.

For everyone, this has been about trying to make the most of a bad situation and it saddens me that while we have heard a lot when footballers have broken the social distancing guidelines, not enough has been said about the good things they have done.

You only need look at the Premier League’s test results to realise that most players have been extremely professional.

Some have gone above and beyond, and I feel we should have done more to celebrate the amazing things Marcus Rashford, to give one example, has been doing.

Rashford is only 22 but has been determined to give something back. As well as helping out delivering meals, calling supporters and hosting a televised PE lesson for home-bound children, he has set up a charity which has raised about £20m during lockdown.

The Players Together initiative was another great piece of work but footballers constantly do a lot for charity on condition there is no publicity, and there will be so much we do not know about. Much of it will be little things – I have been shopping for the elderly and delivering snacks and drinks to my local hospital – but it all adds up, and many footballers who have had difficult upbringings are as keen to help out their communities as anyone.

In trying to get through this situation, football has made some good and some bad decisions.

When you do anything for the first time you are always likely to make mistakes and whatever they did, someone was bound to be left unhappy.

I wish a way had been found to keep women’s football and the lower and non-leagues going to settle things on the pitch.

For Liverpool to have been relegated from the WSL with eight games to play felt unfair because you just cannot predict football, particularly end-of-season football, and I feel for Peterborough United and Tranmere Rovers in League One.

The killing of George Floyd in America has brought racism to the fore in all walks of life in the last weeks of football’s lockdown.

Racism was a big football issue earlier in the season, with a number of high-profile incidents at home and abroad, and one I have written about a few times in this column.

As a white ex-footballer, you often do not feel qualified to talk about it because I have not experienced some of the horrible things my old team-mates have. Even this week I have heard some eye-opening stories from my friends about things they have been through.

It is yet another reminder this is a problem we cannot ignore and the most important thing is educating ourselves.

Football will have learnt a lot from this lockdown, and I hope it reflects on it to come out of it better, and to improve communication.

We all desperately hope there is not a second spike to disrupt next season and more importantly threaten the nation’s health, but hopefully measures can be put in place so we know how the game will deal with it if it does.