At home with Chloe Peplow!

In an exclusive catch up with England Under-21 international Chloe Peplow, we speak about how her recovery from injury is progressing and how she’s been keeping herself occupied during isolation in Birmingham…

What’s a typical day at home been like for you during lockdown? 

Chloe: “I’ll usually be ready to start my day at around 9am. I normally have two sessions to complete so I will start the first one at around 10am. My first session usually consists of conditioning or it will be a lower/upper body weight session. In terms of my conditioning, it’s a lot of being on a bike and boxing. During sessions, I’ll usually get on with some personal training work I’ve been doing alongside being a professional footballer. I’ve been using this time to trial sessions with my mum in the front garden – the neighbours have been coming out to watch, it’s been pure entertainment for them watching my mum doing my exercises. After that, I’ll start my injury prevention session which is exercises solely based around my foot.”

Do you do much in the evenings?

Chloe: “I think it’s important to take some time away from football, so I’ll usually play Fortnite on the PS4 with Anna Filbey. I’ve also been cooking dinner for me and my mum. I am not an amazing cook so it will be stuff like chicken, vegetables and mash or chicken fajitas, basically everything is based around chicken. I always cook for my mum at the minute which I think is very nice of me. She will go and buy the shopping and I will cook and that’s my way of giving something back to her. After dinner, we both walk our two dogs Rocco and Patch.”

Other than your mum, are you staying with anyone else or have you got any family near by?

Chloe: “It’s just me and my mum in Bromsgrove in Birmingham but my Grandad lives directly next door to us, and my brother stays there with him. So essentially, it’s the four of us which is really nice in these times – no one is on their own.”

How do you feel your rehab is going?

Chloe: “I do feel like I am making good progress but it’s hard to know exactly where I am at without seeing our medical team in person. I have a video call every Friday with Sarah (Sports Therapist) and Dan (Club Doctor) and then we have a WhatsApp group with our injured players where I speak to the other girls and Sarah regularly. We’ll post videos of our rehab sessions, seeing the progress that Sophie (Mclean) and Jess (Naz) are making motivates me and helps me on my journey to returning from injury. In terms of my foot itself, I’m not in any pain. I came out of my boot a few weeks ago, it’s feeling strong and I am feeling good.”

You must have been chuffed to get your boot off after all this time?

Chloe: “Yes I was for sure. Getting out of the boot is a big step in overcoming an injury and just being able to walk on my foot normally and without being in any pain was a relief for me.”

How often are you in touch with your team-mates?

Chloe: “I’ve been in touch with a few of them and I am in regular contact with Rianna Dean, Anna Filbey, Kit Graham, Siri Worm and Gemma Davison. I had my nan’s funeral the other week and the girls made me a nice video of them sending their wishes and support to me for the day which was lovely. We have our group chats too which are still quite lively and the quizzes we had the other week with Rosella Ayane and Becky Spencer helped massively with the group interaction.”

Which team-mates are you missing the most?

Chloe: “I am missing all of them to be honest and just the whole social environment. We’ve been doing some performance analysis tasks from some of our games so far this season and it just brings back memories of some incredible moments with the group and makes you really miss everything.”

Have you been doing any fitness challenges going around on social media or TikTok videos?

Chloe: “I have been doing a few TikTok videos…I did one of my mum which was really funny. Before lockdown, Jess Naz was showing me how to do some dancing TikToks at the Training Centre but it was just an epic fail…I can’t dance at all.”

What are you missing most about football?

Chloe: “I am definitely missing getting that matchday feeling.” 

Have you been watching anything interesting on TV, any recommendations?

Chloe: “I am not a massive TV/Netflix fan, but I have been watching Tiger King and Love is Blind before I go to sleep.”

Reading any books/ listening to any podcasts?

Chloe: “I don’t read a lot, but I’ve been looking through bits and pieces from The Chimp Paradox. I’m not listening to any podcasts currently but on Spotify I have some playlists I have made that help keep me motivated when I am doing my rehab, I also have a boxing playlist too which includes some Eminem songs which seems to help me hit the bag harder.”

Learning any new skills/ online courses?

Chloe: “I am studying at the moment doing my Level 3 Personal Training course so it’s been a good time for me to get that work done and then when we get back to football, I can solely focus on getting back on the pitch and returning from injury. I’ve also been doing a lot of cooking. I wouldn’t say I am amazing, but I am definitely using this time to practice and expand my knowledge. I have been doing a lot around the house too, being more domesticated, walking the dog and helping my mum out etc, so I guess you could say I am building on my life skills.”

When we come out of lockdown, what’s the first thing you want to do?

Chloe: “Go for a Nando’s.”