Myrleford's Jack Milford waiting for chance to shine at Notre Dame College

After limited game time in his freshman year, the talented midfielder, who most recently played for Murray United, had his season derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic and has been forced to wait longer than he'd hoped for an opportunity.

Milford flew back to Myrtleford earlier in the year and was set to play with his former club in the AWFA, but when the season was put on hold, he opted to return to America and continue to train with his college side.

To top it off, one of his teammates contracted coronavirus this year and the whole squad was forced into two weeks of quarantine, but he's hopeful of a return to the pitch in the new year.

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Notre Dame, a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division two team, has an eight-game spring schedule set to commence on February 18.

Despite a tough start to his four years at Notre Dame to study business management, Milford has enjoyed it.

"We're a big sports school. It's not the biggest people-wise, but all our teams do well athletically," he said.

"There's a lot of foreign guys on our team so we're all in the same boat and we all get along together.

"The main point of coming over here was to keep playing at a higher level and get my degree as well.

"We just need this COVID to go away so we can get back on the field."

Ohio has been one of the hardest hit states by COVID-19 with 585,000 confirmed cases, but Milford said the college has done well to keep students safe.

"It's a lot worse than it is back home, but there's not much we can really do," he said.

"The school has done as much as they can, we get temperature checks before and after training and I think next spring we're getting COVID tested twice a week."

Fellow Myrtleford and Murray United player Fletcher Caponecchia also plays in the US college system and was recently appointed captain of West Virginia University Institute of Technology.

Caponecchia is a close friend of Milford's, but the pandemic has made it near impossible to catch up.

Milford will spend Christmas and New Year in America and is set to commence pre-season training with the team on January 11.