Brescia forward Mario Balotelli joked “they waited for Juventus to go top” before suspending Serie A due to the Coronavirus outbreak and doubts play will resume on April 3.

Currently on lockdown along with everyone else in Italy, SuperMario spent his time chatting with friend Er Faina on a live Instagram broadcast.

“We’ve got to stay home, guys, people don’t understand the severity of what is happening,” said the Italy international.

“I really miss football, but we have to stay home. If you don’t, I’ll go out there and give you a slap!”

Balotelli also joked about the fact some more Week 26 games were played behind closed doors before Serie A was ordered to halt.

“They had to wait until Juventus went back on top before stopping the league,” he laughed.

“In all honesty, I hope Serie A doesn’t start up again until there are no more cases. I got so angry at the start when I urged everyone to stop and people insulted me for it. Maybe now they’ve finally realised the situation.

“The trouble is that when in Switzerland they say ‘don’t leave your homes,’ people don’t leave. In Italy, that is not the case. If we don’t sort ourselves out soon, we’ll reach 2021 and still have Coronavirus.”

If the season does not conclude regularly, then there are several options on how to proceed, including play-offs for promotion and relegation, freezing the table as it stands or refusing to assign the Scudetto at all.

“My idea would be not to give anyone victory, don’t relegate anyone, so it’d be fair in my view to promote two Serie B teams and play Serie A next season with 22 clubs.

“Either way, I really doubt we’re going to start playing again by April 3.”