Football fans hoping for the return of some top quality action to ease the monotony of lockdown are about to get their wish granted.
The German government has given the green light for the return of the Bundesliga with the target restart date of May 15 still on.
But the players will have to go through a one-week quarantine to reduce the risk of Covid-19 infection first.
So what does this all mean and how close are we to one of Europe's major leagues getting underway again? Sportsmail answers your questions.
So not long to wait for the return of our football fix?
The wait looks to be nearly over. The Bundesliga return is pencilled in for May 15, or next weekend, and we will finally have some football to watch in lockdown.
Following Wednesday morning's video conference meeting of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany's 16 state premiers, the green light has been given for the football season to restart this month.
But German journalist Raphael Honigstein reports that players will have to go into quarantine for a week before the action can recommence.
Why has the Bundesliga's return has been given the green light?
The government was satisfied that football can make a comeback under certain strict conditions as lockdown measures are being eased in Germany.
Shops are going to re-open next week, schools later this month and normality has already returned to the country in some regards with museums, churches, hairdressers and factories open already.
Germany has been more successful than most of its European neighbours in restricting the spread of Covid-19 and the daily infection rate remained below 1,000 for the fifth day running on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the country recorded 947 new cases, an increase from 685 on Tuesday, taking the total from 163,860 to 164,807.
There were 165 more deaths recorded, up from 139 on Tuesday, bringing the overall death toll in Germany from 6,831 to 6,996.
What form could this Bundesliga quarantine take?
That remains to be decided but getting the squad together in some form of training camp would be the obvious answer.
The players and club staff would presumably be isolated together, potentially at the club's training ground, away from family and friends to reduce the risk of infection, for a week.
This was the amount of time recommended when plans were drawn up to get the Bundesliga season up and running again. And it means the first games could be played on May 15 - a week on Friday - and over the weekend of the 16/17.
All players would be subject to testing on a regular basis, which is happening anyway. More on that later.
The players are already back in training anyway?
That's right. Some Bundesliga clubs have been back in training since April 6, which was just over three weeks after the league was suspended on March 13.
It hasn't been the full training you'd get during normal circumstances with players splitting off into groups of about five so that social distancing and hygiene precautions could be observed.
But with the lifting of lockdown restrictions in Germany, full training should be able to resume soon.
Given players have been working on their fitness on the training ground for this long, you would expect them to be match sharp for the resumption whenever it happens this month and that bodes well for the entertainment value of games.
You mentioned testing, what's the situation with that?
Testing the players was a major part of the detailed back-to-action blueprint drawn up by the Bundesliga and the DFL, the German league, last month.
The league committed testing every player at least once a week, procuring in excess of 25,000 testing kits at a total cost of £2.2million.
Testing in the Bundesliga began at the end of April and each player has been tested every two to five days in an effort to reduce the risk of infection.
Each club was assigned a laboratory for their tests to be checked, with results usually returned the same day. Some are using labs in Bremen and Geesthacht, others one in Cologne.
Has anyone tested positive?
Yes, there have been 11 disclosed positive results from the 1,700 plus tests conducted so far. However, this hasn't derailed the plans to return this month.
Three positive tests came from Bundesliga club Cologne and the players were placed into a 14-day quarantine so that training with the remainder of the squad could continue.
The other players in the squad who had come into contact with those who tested positive were then tested for symptoms every 24 hours. None returned positive results.
Then, on the eve of Wednesday's crucial government meeting, reports of a positive test at second tier club Erzgebirge Aue emerged.
A member of the club's 'function team' recorded a positive test and the whole team were sent home to self-isolate.
This news could well explain why all teams are now required to go into quarantine in what appears to be a precautionary step.
Have any of the players expressed concerns?
Inevitably, yes. The Cologne player Birger Verstraete criticised his club for their handling of the three positive cases but was duly slapped down and made to apologise for his comments.
Verstraete told television station VTM in his native Belgium that he was finding it hard to focus on football, especially as his girlfriend is at high risk due to a previous heart conditions.
'I want everyone to be healthy before we play soccer again,' he said, before explaining how the two players who tested positive (the third was a physio) had been 'extremely close to me' during training.
Verstraete said the decision not to quarantine the whole squad was 'a bit bizarre' and that he had paired up with one of the positive players in the gym.
Cologne were left fuming and Verstraete had to issue an apology on the club's website. It read: 'Instead of giving an interview out of emotion, I should have contacted our doctor and had my questions answered. It was not my intention to blame the responsible authorities of FC Cologne.'
Others are taking the coronavirus threat a little less seriously. Former Chelsea forward Salomon Kalou, now at Hertha Berlin, flouted rules by filming himself shaking hands with his team-mates and interrupting team-mate Jordan Torunarigha's test.
He also was heard singing a 'corona song' and moaning about pay cuts. All of this was streamed live on Facebook.
The German league branded Kalou's actions as 'absolutely unacceptable' and Hertha suspended the Ivorian.
There has also been controversy over an email, disclosed by magazine Kicker, sent from the league to clubs asking them not to disclose test results to the media.
Cologne and Eintracht Frankfurt were two of the leading clubs who'd done so, announcing a round of negative tests at the weekend.
What was the state of the Bundesliga when it stopped?
The last match played in the Bundesliga was Borussia Monchengladbach's 2-1 win over Cologne, in front of an empty stadium, on March 11.
When the league was suspended, the majority of the 18 teams had nine games left to play. Eintracht Frankfurt and Werder Bremen have a game in hand.
An exciting title race was developing with reigning champions Bayern Munich four points clear of Borussia Dortmund in second and five clear of RB Leipzig in third.
Bayern still have to make the trip to Dortmund, however, so it is far from a foregone conclusion.
At the bottom, Paderborn looked doomed but second-bottom Werder Bremen were still fighting and Fortuna Dusseldorf appeared to be on course for the relegation play-off. Mainz and Augsburg had their heads just about water.
So will the season just pick up where it left off?
Not necessarily. In the original schedule presented to clubs last month, fixtures would resume from the 26th matchday and work through chronologically as they would have been played.
A couple of midweek matchdays had been worked in to ensure all the games were completed before the end of June.
There were also plans to conclude the German Cup, which was at the semi-final stage.
However, a second plan has now emerged which would see the 34th and final round of games played first and the schedule worked through backwards.
One issue with this is over players who were set to serve a suspension on the 26th matchday. Would they serve it now or have to wait until the end of the season.
These are issue the DFL and Bundesliga need to quickly resolve.
How will games look?
Very different to normal, that's for sure. German football prides itself on loud, passionate and colourful fans but the stadiums will be very much empty with only the shouts of the players and coaches audible.
Under resumption plans, a maximum of 322 people will be allowed in and around stadiums for top-flight Bundesliga games and a maximum of 270 in the 2. Bundesliga.
The 322 will include all the players, coaches, referee, journalists, TV cameramen, doping control officers, stewards, security, groundsmen and ball boys.
They will be divided into three defined zones - 98 will be allowed inside the stadium, 115 in the stands and 109 outside the stadium.
Teams will arrive at the stadium separately and rituals such as pre-match handshakes and team photographs will be abandoned. There will be no player mascots.
Protective masks will be mandatory for medical personnel, pitchside sinks will be required for hygiene reasons and those involved in television production, doors will remain open to avoid contaminated handles, while press conferences will be conducted virtually.
Indeed, everyone in the dug-outs will have to sit two or three seats apart to maintain some form of social distancing as a precaution.
And players face the prospect of washing their own kit to avoid contamination.
Temperature checks will be taken using an ear thermometer on everyone at a security-controlled entrance to the stadium.
Some clubs have taken a novel approach to the empty stadium problem. Borussia Monchengladbach invited fans to buy a cardboard cut-out of themselves which have been installed in their stadium and thousands responded.
How will the fans be watching?
Security will be in place to ensure fans don't assemble outside stadiums while matches are going on.
In a similar fashion to the UK, there have been calls from senior politicians for the matches to be screened on free-to-air channels to discourage fans gathering at pubs to watch on pay-per-view networks Sky and DAZN, who hold the broadcasting rights.
Sky screens the majority of games and hasn't ruled out reselling their rights to network channels.
In the UK, Bundesliga games are shown live on BT Sport.