Wigan Athletic star preparing for new arrival

The 28-year-old – Wigan Athletic’s longest-serving player, having joined from Wolves in the summer of 2015 – has been using the lockdown to hone his domestic skills.

And he says a lack of football due to the Covid-19 pandemic hasn’t resulted in much free time on his hands.

“I think I’ve found every job possible in the house over the last few weeks,” Jacobs said.

“My wife’s had me painting...we’re having a baby in June so I’ve been painting the nursery, putting things up and making it ready.

“I think I’ll run out of things to do in the next couple of weeks, but I’m sure she’ll find something else for me to do!

“It’s obviously an exciting time for us, albeit a bit of a strange time to be bringing a baby into the world.

“But we’ve had great contact with the hospital, they’ve been great, and it’s about trying to keep things as normal as we can.”

Not that it’s been all domestic chores, with Jacobs and his Latics colleagues having also been working hard at home to stay in trim ahead of the return to action – whenever that may be.

“The fitness lads have sorted us all out with fitness programmes, which we can be doing at home,” revealed the Rothwell-born ace.

“It’s a matter of trying to stick to that as much as we possibly can.

“Obviously it’s a bit difficult with not having all the equipment we would have at the training ground. But it’s trying to keep the body ticking over and staying as fit as we can.

“It’s a bit like the close season really, except we don’t have that definite time-frame of playing matches again.

“So it’s been giving the body a bit of rest, and also bits here and there to stay on top of the fitness, so when we do get back to it, we’ll be giving ourselves the best opportunity of getting back up to speed quickly.

“But obviously the most important thing at the moment is to stay safe and stay indoors.”