RESIDENTS and staff from Poole based care homes provider Care South have received a boost during lockdown from Ambassador Aaron Ramsdale, first-team goalkeeper at AFC Bournemouth.

Ramsdale, like many professional footballers, is awaiting news of the current season’s restart, but took time out of his day to record a special video message before testing positive for the Covid-19 virus.

Care South and AFC Bournemouth’s Community Sports Trust are currently in their sixth season of a successful partnership that has seen Ramsdale named as Care South Ambassador and regular visits and activities put on by the Trust for care home residents.

In the video message, Aaron Ramsdale said: “To everyone at Care South – the residents and the staff – just a quick message to see if everyone is OK.

“A big thank you to the staff for your continuous work with the residents. I’m certainly missing coming over and I think when we can eventually come back, we can come and play some more chair football and bring smiles to the faces.

“Thank you once again, and we will get through this together.”

Ramsdale tested positive for Covid-19 during the second round of Premier League testing.

However, having self-isolated and confirmed a negative test, the 22-year-old has returned to training with AFC Bournemouth ahead of the Premier League restart in two weeks.

Earlier this year – before visits to care homes were restricted by the Covid-19 lockdown and the Premier League season was postponed – Ramsdale visited Care South’s Wickmeads care home, near Christchurch.

While there, he played games of armchair football, gave away items of memorabilia and spoke with residents about their memories of the club.

Prior to the lockdown, the Community Sports Trust plan to visit two of Care South’s residential and dementia homes each week to socialise with residents and help them get active, whatever their mobility.

They also invited residents to the Vitality Stadium at Christmas for a special coffee morning.

The Premier League season is due to resume on June 17.

Care South is a not-for-profit charity that manages 12 residential and dementia care homes in Dorset, the majority of which are located within Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch.

For more information about Care South and its partnership with the AFC Bournemouth Community Sports Trust, visit www.care-south.co.uk.