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Doctors told Premier League players that training is no more risky than a trip to the stores.
Speaking by conference call on Wednesday, medical experts assured the players that they would not be “used as guinea pigs” as the football season prepares for a possible gradual return next month.
They were told that their cases would also be dealt with individually and that they would not be threatened with postponing them until next year if they did not sign up for the plans, called “Restarting the project“
Dialing on the call, the captains of each Premier league The team raised a series of problems, which Sky News was told were among a series of “probing, incisive, and informed” questions asked by league medical adviser Mark Gillett and other government medical advisers.
These problems included the increased risk of serious effects of COVID-19 for BAME players and the added risk for players living with young children and older relatives.
“The players were incredibly well informed and asked complete, probing and incisive questions that they will then answer to their teammates,” said executive director of the Association of Professional Footballers (PFA), Gordon Taylor.
He added: “Every effort is being made in these testing times to make it as safe as possible, practically and humanely. It can never be 100% safe, but it is about making the level of risk as small as possible.” .
All players received a 40-page document prior to the meeting, detailing what an initial return to training phase would look like.
The conference call was held to help understand and reassure the security concerns of a growing number of high-profile players, including Manchester City stars Raheem Sterling and Sergio Agüero.
Taylor said: “They asked questions about the supermarket and were told by medical experts that, according to Premier League plans, they believe the training will be as safe a haven as possible and would compare well with other things in the community.
“They were assured that with the construction and manufacturing back, it was not about soccer players like guinea pigs.”
Among the guidelines for a proposed reset, players will be advised to wear a mask or hairnet during training, and will be subject to a COVID-19 test twice a week.
They will also be asked to travel alone to training and park their car three spaces from the nearest vehicle.
Training will only be allowed in small groups for a maximum of 75 minutes, while any injury will be treated by a physio with full PPE.
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Meanwhile, Taylor said he believed the prospect of a closed-door season to return on June 12 remained realistic.
“If we are talking about climbing Everest, then we are still at base camp,” he said.
“We are taking each step at a time, but I was impressed by how meticulously planned the Premier League protocol was, and they made it clear to the players that they are obviously the essential people in this.”
