Watford captain Troy Deeney and club legend Luther Blissett have both joined calls for people to follow government guidelines and stay inside to prevent the coronavirus outbreak from getting worse.

Footage from across the country over the weekend showed the general public out in vast numbers, visiting landmarks such as Snowdonia and the North York Moors.

Deeney criticised those who ignored the guidance and said people need to look at how the virus is affecting people in other countries to understand the impact it could have on the UK.

“We've all got to stay at home and follow the government guidelines,” he said in an interview for the club website.

“How many more warnings do we need? They said they'll pay 80 per cent of wages and people are still going to work.

“Some are seeing it as a bit of a jolly up and it's a shame because it could affect so many. You've got to hope people see the curve in Italy and Spain and get [the severity] of it.”

Recently defender Christian Kabasele also called for people to stay at home in an interview with a Belgian publication, while Luther Blissett joined Deeney in speaking to the club website to give his opinion on the matter, in which he called for the country to adopt war-time community spirit.

“On the back of what Graham Taylor said, it's family first, football second,” said Blissett.

“That should never change especially at this particular time. I'd also like to say a thank you to all NHS workers and other essential workers that do their job as without them, we'd be in a state.

“Sunday's briefing by Boris Johnson was quite poignant as I could see he was struggling to say to everyone, 'Look, you're not listening. I'll have to enforce it if you don't get on with it.' What we saw at the weekend was disgraceful, with everyone going out having parties. This is the single most deadly thing we've ever had to deal with. We need to adopt the spirit of back in the war when we looked out for, and after, each other. We need to take every precaution and respect each other's space.”