Players will need a mini ‘pre-season’

AT some point in the next few months you would hope that our current state of social distancing will be eased and restrictions might be modified if not completely lifted. But even if that were to happen by mid May, which is an optimistic assumption, that won’t be the start of the football season.

It will just be the start of preparing for the football season. Clubs will be arguing for a preparation period to get players properly fit again after a period of isolation and limited training. The medical staff at clubs will be arguing that would need to be a minimum of three weeks, with two weeks of conditioning, which would be like a mini pre-season.

It may be that everyone has to compromise and bring that down to two weeks. As long as it’s the same for everyone, it’s hard to complain. And given these are exceptional times, they may have to live with that.

Let’s say that players are given the go-ahead to train together again in the first wave of relaxations. That can be done while still reducing social contact. You travel in from home in training kit. No one socialises before training. There’s no breakfast or lunch. You simply go out on to the pitch. Then you drive straight home, with no car shares permitted, and shower at home.

But even so, you can’t eliminate risk. And, depending what the rules are on isolation at the time, there is always the possibility of a member of staff contracting the virus which would mean the whole squad needing to isolate again.

At the heart of all of this is the welfare of players. And given there is also a duty to protect fans, the logistics look incredibly complex however you try to resolve this.