“People joke that I never sleep,” Kate Zackary says as she uses some rare free time between rugby and work to chat about one of English rugby union’s newest teams.
The United States international back-row is one of a number of overseas players to have taken the plunge and join Exeter Chiefs’ women’s team.
But the 31-year-old has to juggle her rugby career in the English top flight with her day job in digital marketing.
“I have to do around 10 calls a week, usually a few more depending on internal calls,” she told BBC Sport – also over a video call.
“I have to find time to meet with clients, most of whom are on Pacific Time, so an eight-hour difference.
“Twice a week when we have our more full days, when we’re in there from about 11:30 to 20:30, I work for a few hours in the morning, usually find about an hour in-between sessions and then work for about two hours when I come home.”
It is a tough schedule, but with no television deal and no money coming through the turnstiles because of the Covid-19 pandemic, many players in the Premier 15s have to juggle work and training.
With uncertainty also surrounding the women’s game in the United States, Zackary and a number of her North American-based counterparts were drawn to England – even if it meant joining a side that had never played a game before.
“We had a Women’s Premier League, but there were a lot of questions as to whether it was going to happen, the same with some of our US camps,” she said.
“There was so much indecision, whereas Chiefs were able to offer, hypothetically, a very consistent schedule, training programme, things like that.”