I’m risking my health for the sake of people’s entertainment
THE PREMIER LEAGUE REPORTED FOR DUTY YESTERDAY BUT LOAN-STAR ROSE IS RELUCTANT TO FOLLOW
DANNY ROSE refuses to sugarcoat it, as ever.
Why should he when so many players across the Premier League still have concerns about the risks posed by the coronavirus?
Why should he when, as a black man, he is twice as likely to suffer at the hands of the virus as a white person.
Pats on the back and the lift to the nation’s morale matter little if, inadvertently, you end up passing the virus on to a family member.
Rose’s description of topflight stars as ‘lab rats’ as the game takes its first steps back towards restarting may well stick in the craw of some critics. Yet players, told to speak to the people in charge of their safety instead of jumping on podcasts and Instagram Live, claim they were unable to get answers to “basic” concerns put to the Premier League in last week’s captain’s call.
So it is little wonder that, despite the intention to test them rigorously, men like Rose are still apprehensive.
“For stuff like that I think is it worth the hassle?” said the Newcastle left-back, on loan from Tottenham. “I could be potentially risking my health for people’s entertainment and that’s not something I want to be involved in.”
Therein lies the question – is your entertainment worth more than a player’s state of mind? It might well be true the six people from three clubs that tested positive out of 748 players and staff represented less than one per cent.
You aren’t the one expected to engage in physical contact for
90-plus minutes during a pandemic.
They are. So yes, players are entitled to voice their fears.
As the conversation continues around mental health, we parrot the mantra that it’s good to talk yet, tut-tut, when the words are not what we want to hear.
Rose, 29, is the latest in a number of players to have to have admitted they feel unsafe too. From Manchester City to West Ham to Brighton to Arsenal. After he first gave his views last week, however, he was ticked off by Toon boss Steve Bruce ( far left).
He told The Lockdown Podcast: “I was having my breakfast the next day and then saw Steve Bruce coming up on my phone. So I was like, ‘Oh no!’
“I went in another room and spoke to him and he said I just need to word things a bit better if I’m going to do things like that.
“He explained the measures that they’re going to do to make things safe. Obviously I’ve seen the headlines and we, as footballers and people in the public, we have a platform.”
There is no easy way,
Deeney: I can’t get a haircut until mid-july but I can go and get in a box with 19 people
however, for players to admit they are scared.
Watford’s Troy Deeney (left) insisted as much last Thursday. He had been one of the 20 Premier League captains in a meeting with the Premier League and medical experts.
Deeney told the Talk The Talk Youtube show this week: “I asked very simple questions.
“For black, Asian and mixed ethnicities, they’re four times more likely to get the illness.
“They are twice as likely to have long lasting illnesses. Is there anything extra, additional screening, heart stuff to see if people have got problems with that? No. OK, well I feel that should be addressed.
“I can’t get a haircut until midjuly but I can go and get in a box with 19 people and jump for a header? Nobody could answer the questions because they don’t know the information.”