Elaine Rice talks to Caroline O'Hanlon during her time as coach of Northern Ireland
Former Northern Ireland netball coach Elaine Rice says she "worries for the future of the sport" and women's sport in general amid the continuing disruption caused by Covid-19.
Rice told BBC Radio Ulster's Sportsound Extra Time of her major concern.
"Your average club player is going to struggle to get any games," said the former Northern Ireland coach.
"There has been no indication of when that will start or even if it will start.
"You have to kind of worry for the future of the sport if they don't get that start."
Even the sport's elite English Super League, which features a number of Northern Ireland players including Caroline O'Hanlon, is currently on hold and while there have been hopes that it might resume early in 2021, the reintroduction of stringent anti-Covid measures could put this in doubt.
Rice's own Crumlin outfit was the first local netball clubs to get back up and running within the last six weeks but this is not the case with all clubs in Northern Ireland.
"I'm contacting many of the girls and they just want to have a ball in hand. You're not a player if you're not playing.
"There is a real need to get it done safely and there have been some changes to the rules of netball to allow that to happen and a lot of hard work went into people coming up with that."
In terms of the international squad, Rice is equally concerned that the steady progress they have made in recent years could be severely undermined by the global pandemic.
"The international girls need a competition calendar in place. The girls need to know what they are training for and really start their preparations for the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
"A number of our girls play in the semi-professional league over in England, the other girls (in the squad) are also getting a wee bit more recognition but it would be an awful shame if all this progress in female sports was undone because of the pandemic.
"Male sport has enough money and enough sponsors behind them that if it doesn't happen for a while yet, they will take a financial hit, but it's a financial hit that they can bounce back from.
"But with the female sport, and netball in particular, because it doesn't have a male counterpart, there will be great worry that the progress made could be undone."
