Joseph Olowu will restart his loan spell with Cork City in the League of Ireland on Sunday, after almost five months without a game.

Olowu moved from Arsenal on loan to Cork City in February, initially joining until June. Following the pandemic, however, he extended his temporary move to the end of the current season.

Unlike in England, where the domestic campaign came to an end with the FA Cup final on Saturday, Irish football is only just starting up again this weekend. Playing to the end of the campaign means staying with Cork City until the end of October.

As a result, Olowu hasn’t played a match since March 6th. He was up to five appearances in just a few weeks before lockdown.

Results didn’t entirely go to plan during that time, but Olowu won praise with his individual performances.

“I think we were on a steady rise,” Olowu said in a press conference ahead of the weekend. “We were gaining a bit of momentum, we were understanding each other. Results weren’t falling our way, but we were better playing together.

“It was unfortunate that it (the pandemic) happened, but we’ve just got to pick back up and hopefully just start on the front foot.”

Cork City did get a win in one of their final two games before the break, but they remain bottom of the league as things stand. They need to start putting results together, and it looks like Olowu will have plenty of chances to impress.

The defender did have to quarantine for a couple of weeks before he could join full training with the squad, so he’s at a bit of a disadvantage. He’ll need to get up to speed quickly now with the games coming thick and fast.