Rewind to 5pm on Sunday, March 8, Rovers have just been soundly beaten away at Derby County, the feelings of frustration, disappointment, a missed opportunity, fester.

Twenty four hours earlier, as fans watched scores from elsewhere come flooding in, there was a sense of anticipation about the following day’s game, knowing a win would have guaranteed Rovers a top six spot.

Sport can punish emotions, send you from elation to desolation in a matter of seconds. But few things can heighten them to such levels.

There are much more important things in life, health for one, and mourning the absence of sport for few weeks, or possibly months, does feel rather trivial and selfish at a time when the world is gripped by a pandemic.

But the absence of sport for at least the immediate future does leave a hole that few things can fill.

Sport has seen us through so much. It’s a time for people to come together, with 3pm on a Saturday and 7.45pm on a midweek evening often the main source of camaraderie for many, a feeling of belonging.

It can be a distraction, something to focus the attention on away from the struggles of daily life.

For now, there are much more important things than whether Rovers can break in to the top six. We don’t even know when, or even if, they will have the chance.  

But while we think about the absence of sport, and the void it leaves in our lives, it should make us cherish it more when the time comes for life to go back to normal.

‘We go again’ is a well-trodden phrase by players and supporters after a defeat, and there is normally ‘always next week’. For now, we don’t when that will be.

Call the season null and void, end it now, play it behind closed doors, finish to a conclusion whenever that be possible, are all alternatives that have been mooted.

It’s a tough call to make, with every single one offering more questions than answers, possible legal minefields, challenges and counter-challengers, some will benefit and some will cry foul.

The ‘behind closed doors’ option is the one that most would surely be against. Sport is about emotion, emotion brought by supporters, and without them, matches would be soulless, a box-ticking exercise to simply to fulfil a fixture list, a compromise.

When talk of a pandemic, travel bans and self-isolation are filling the news and social media feeds where sport for most would previously have been, it is rather trivial to think of the postponement of the next three weeks of matches, at least, as an issue.

Coronavirus will have an unprecedented impact on sport, but that won’t even come close to the devastating impact it will have on the world.

‘The show must go on’ has for so long been sport’s riposte to tragedy around the world, but thankfully, where health was concerned, the right decision was made.

Sport will be back, just make sure we appreciate it when it does, and not take for granted the wider role it can play in our lives than just what happens on a pitch, a court, a ring or a course.

In the meantime, stay safe, take precaution, follow the advice and look out for others.