Kevin De Bruyne says he and his family chose to stay in Manchester during the lock-down because “this is our home”.

The Belgian playmaker wanted to keep life for his young family as normal as possible and decided to stay in England while much of Europe remains at home.

He understands the needs of each team-mate is different at this difficult time, particularly those who have family overseas.

CITYZENS AT HOME

But in his case, Manchester was the more logical choice.

“To keep in touch is not really hard with FaceTime, the telephone and the internet, it is easy,” said De Bruyne.

“Obviously we considered going home but in the end we live in Manchester, we are used to being here and I think it was the better option to stay for us because in the end you stay home anyway and maybe it is safer to stay here then to go home and have the attraction of seeing people.

“It’s not nice, but it is not nice for anybody so in one way we have to explain it a bit to our older son who understands, maybe a little bit.

“He hears ‘corona’ but he is only four-years-old. They ask questions, sometimes they don’t understand why nobody is coming over.

“It was my son’s birthday party recently so we had to cancel that for another time so he was a little bit sad, but we try to do good things in the garden and the sun has been out so we have been doing really well to be honest.”

“We are doing well. At the beginning of the lockdown my family was sick for eight or nine days. It started with my little boy, then my older boy and then my wife, but I don’t know if we had it (the virus) or not.

“Luckily we are out of it and the last two or three weeks has been really good and we are finding a routine and everything so we are fine.

“I had just a little bit of pain in my throat but out of the four I was really good in comparison to the other ones. I am happy that they feel fine and now they are doing really well.

“I think everybody is trying to do their part. I think everybody feels responsible in a way for their community. It can be their country or where you live or your family, everybody has its own situation and everybody is going to take care of the people around them and then obviously, if they can, they will do more stuff.

“Obviously we are more fortunate than others so we are able to do more but even sometimes for people it is not about money; it is about interaction between us and fans and I saw that also with the live video I did.

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“It is probably not the best thing I did but people enjoy it and people like to see you in another time and space and I think that is the good thing about having social media these days so you can do this type of stuff while being at home and I think that is a good thing.”

De Bruyne also revealed what a typical day is like in his household at present. 

With two young children to entertain and a fitness regime to uphold, it’s non-stop for the midfielder. 

But despite those demands, he says he and his family have found a routine he is content with. 

“Well, my day starts mostly between 5.30am and 6am,” he said. “Mostly me and my wife change these days of who is getting up so mostly at the beginning it is fairly easy, they watch some TV, have some breakfast and now at 9am my oldest son has online lessons for school so he is doing that.

“We are keeping the boys entertained. When the sun is out, I want them to be out. We bought some toys, we bought a little goal, we made a little playground when I bought the house, so they are lucky enough to have a lot of stuff.

“We are in a really good situation unlike other people who are in a little house or may be in an apartment which would be difficult. Our boys inside, we call them two savages; they just destroy the whole house and that’s two little boys I guess.

“They are doing really well and I enjoyed the connection they have. It has been growing more now because the only ones they have is each other. They have us but I guess children don’t want to be with their parents all the time either.

“In the afternoon, between 12 and 2, my youngest son mostly still has a nap, so that is the time that I do my fitness work so I try to do that when my wife doesn’t have the two boys.

“To take two is always too difficult. In the afternoon there is more and more of the same; playing, drawing, whatever they want to do, then bath time, making food, clean the house, doing that sort of stuff and mostly around 7 or 8 with them, then it is mostly time to have a rest.

“I think a lot of people are the same but we are managing very well. We have found a routine that we are happy with, they feel comfortable with, and I think that is, for all the people, the most difficult task.”