FABIO BORINI admits the week’s tragic events in Paris, and the subsequent display of solidarity and respect at Wembley on Tuesday, have forced footballers to rethink their place in the global spotlight.

However, the Sunderland forward insists normal service has to resume when the Premier League cranks back into action this weekend.

With major football matches now regarded as a high-profile terrorist target in the wake of the failed attempts to storm the Stade de France last Friday, there will be heightened security measures to protect this weekend’s round of Premier League matches.

Sunderland return to action when they travel to Crystal Palace on Monday, and Borini admits the events of the last six days have forced him to re-evaluate his role as a high-profile professional who represents both his club and country.

“It has been a strange week to be a footballer,” said the Italian, who tweeted his support for the victims of the Paris massacre in the immediate aftermath of last weekend’s attacks.

“When you are on the pitch, you forget about anything to do with your status or your profile, but sometimes when you are off the pitch, something happens to make you remember.

“That is what has happened this week. When you are on the pitch, you forget everything, even who is watching, and that is the way it has to be. I see people reacting on a football pitch and they do things they would never do in normal life, but that is because they are caught up in that world.

“It is only when things like this week happen that you move outside that world. Watching the international games this week and the tragedy in Paris, you realise how big an impact you can have as a footballer just by showing respect to people.”

That respect was evident in the communal singing of La Marseillaise and the impeccable minute’s silence that preceded Tuesday’s friendly between England and France at Wembley.

This weekend’s domestic matches will feature a period of remembrance before kick-off, with individual clubs also organising their own tributes.

Borini feels it is right for footballers to be at the forefront of the grieving process given their global profile and the fact that the sport was so specifically targeted in Paris. However, he also believes that any wider sensibilities have to be shelved once the action begins.

“Players can’t be thinking about the wider world or their wider responsibilities this weekend,” he said. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but you have to think about the game. Football is a game of passions and excitement, and we can’t forget about that.

“There was a lot of respect before the England game this week, but once the match started you still saw people making tackles and being emotional – that is the way it has to be.”

Borini’s main focus at Selhurst Park will be on opening his goalscoring account for the season, and kick-starting an improved run of form that could help haul Sunderland out of the relegation zone.

The striker claimed ten goals in his previous spell at the Stadium of Light, but has not found the target since opening the scoring for Liverpool in January’s 2-0 win at Aston Villa.

It is not that he has been missing chances – his only real opportunity this season came in the 2-2 draw with West Ham – but he admits he has been frustrated by his failure to find the target, which he attributes to an early-season rustiness following a season of inactivity at Anfield.

“I just want to get that first goal,” he said. “It has been harder this season than the previous spell I had here because of everything that happened before I came. I wasn’t really playing last season, and then there was the frustration of the transfer window and wondering what was going to happen.

“It also doesn’t help that the season has been so stop-start because of the international breaks. Hopefully, now that we are into a long run of games, I can start to get into more of a rhythm. That will be better for me, and better for the team.

“It has been a strange season so far because we have also had the change of manager, and the new manager still hasn’t had much of a chance to work with the whole of the team.

“It hasn’t been possible to do all of the work he probably planned to do, but we have four continuous months now where we can work and work, and you will see an improvement because of that.”