Editor�s Note

Raise your hand if you�re going through football withdrawal? OK, raise your hand if you don�t know what the word withdrawal means and can�t answer the previous question until somebody fills you in?

That�s what I thought.

Withdrawal is a noun that, according to our buddies at Oxford, literally refers to �the period of time when somebody is getting used to not taking a drug that they have become dependent on and the unpleasant effects of doing this.�

But unless you�ve been injecting or smoking footballs, my first question may still seem like a silly one. After all, football isn�t a drug.

The thing is, while our good friends at Oxford are a reliable source of literal definitions � and they can certainly teach you all kinds of fancy words to use at a tea party � sometimes they aren�t very hip to the way that words are actually used these days.

Withdrawal doesn�t always refer to drugs. It can also refer to the period of time when somebody is getting used to not taking part in an activity they have done for some time and the unpleasant feelings they have after stopping the activity.

So when I asked if any of you were going through football withdrawal, I was asking if any of you were really missing football now that it isn�t on TV every night.

My guess is that there are probably a good handful of you who are having trouble adjusting to the fact that there won�t be any meaningful games played again until August.

After all, for real football fanatics, the past year has been positively packed with action.

Things kicked off last summer with the World Cup and didn�t really let up until the end of last month with the Champion�s League final.

That�s almost a full year of late nights, penalty shootouts, cup replays, relegation battles and all those mornings that came way too early.

So what�s the solution to football withdrawal?

Sorry, there isn�t one.

Better get some much-needed sleep before August rolls around.

Chris Blake
Editor
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