6 virus cases at clubs as solo training begins
MANCHESTER, England — The Premier League’s first wave of mass coronavirus testing of players and staff found six people infected at three of the 19 clubs to conduct the checks.
Socially distant training sessions can now begin, without the involvement of the six people with COVID-19 who have to self-isolate for seven days. They include Burnley assistant manager Ian Woan, whose positive test was announced by the club. Burnley said Woan was asymptomatic.
The league has not disclosed the identities of those who test tested positive from the tests on 748 people on Sunday and Monday.
“The Premier League is providing this aggregated information for the purposes of competition integrity and transparency,” the league said in a statement.
One of the 20 clubs in the league only started conducting tests on Tuesday. The results of those tests will be included in the figures from the second wave of checks being published on Saturday. The competition has been suspended since March due to the pandemic. A relaxation of national lockdown regulations is only now allowing non-contact training to resume, with a maximum of five players working together for up to 75 minutes a day at training facilities.
While the top divisions in Belgium, France and the Netherlands have been curtailed, the Premier League has government backing to plan a return to action in June.
But the aim of restarting around June 12 looks hard to meet. Approval for contact training and games resuming rely on there being no new spike in COVID-19 cases in the country with the second highest known deaths from the disease after the United States.
Premier League clubs will hold a conference call next Tuesday to discuss the protocols needed for contact training, as social distancing is still urged in wider society.
The pause in the league has left Liverpool waiting to complete the end of its 30-year title drought. Jurgen Klopp’s side is 25 points clear with nine games remaining.
“There was a discussion that people wanted to declare the season null and void,” Klopp said in a video interview for the German football federation that was released on Tuesday. “That would have been something that I personally would have found unfair, if you said that it just didn’t happen.”
RONALDO REPORTS TO JUVENTUS, GIVES THUMBS UP
Cristiano Ronaldo reported to Juventus’ training centre for medical tests on Tuesday after a 10-week absence and gave the media a thumbs up when he left three hours later.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner observed a two-week isolation period at his home in Turin after spending the lockdown in Portugal.
He has not been alongside his teammates since helping the Serie A leaders beat Inter Milan 2-0 on March 8, after which he flew to his home island of Madeira, Portugal.
Serie A was suspended a day later when the Italian government ordered a nationwide lockdown. The league is hoping to resume June 13 if it can reach an agreement with the government, which has banned sports events until June 14.
Outside the training centre in Turin, journalists and photographers plus some fans were on hand when Ronaldo arrived alone driving a Jeep. He was the first of several Juventus players who left Italy during the lockdown to report back to the team.