Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
STIRRING UP A HORNETS NEST
Deeney’s decision not to return looks vindicated as a Watford team-mate is struck by the virus.. and north London is put back in firing line of pandemic
IT took Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta’s revelation that he had contracted coronavirus for English football to hit the emergency brake. And, 10 weeks on, the epicentre of the Premier League’s pandemic crisis is back in Bell Lane, next door to the Gunners’ nerve centre at the London Colney training ground. Long-serving Hornets defender Adrian Mariappa’s admission that he tested positive for Covid-19 in the blanket screening of players earlier this week did not just shock the Jamaican international.
It was vindication of Watford captain Troy Deeney’s refusal to return to training because of his grave reservations about becoming a carrier of the virus.
Not for the first time, Deeney suffered abuse on social media, even though his fivemonth-old son would be in the high-risk category after suffering infant respiratory difficulties.
But now that Mariappa (above) – one of his closest friends in the game – has tested positive, it’s a potential game-changer in football’s haste for the show to resume.
And, as manager Nigel Pearson observed in his first training session since March 11, from behind a black mask, the message from Watford was clear: Don’t play games with our safety. Mariappa, 33, was shocked to be one of six positive tests out of 748 conducted at the start of this week because he insists he has led a blameless lifestyle since sport’s belated shutdown two months ago.
He said: “It’s quite scary how you can feel absolutely fine and not really have left the house – and yet still get the virus.
“The club doctor called to tell me and, to be honest, I
did ask whether it was 100 per cent accurate or whether my results could have got muddled up. In my head, it wasn’t adding up.”
Just 25 days ago, Watford held football’s only live press conference since lockdown – with impeccable social distancing – to show the world their sanctuary for exhausted NHS staff at the hospital next door to Vicarage Road.
Former chairman Sir Elton John conveyed his pride in the club’s solidarity with coronavirus frontline heroes.
That help meant serving 1,000 meals a day, washing more than 10,000 nursing ‘scrubs’ in the laundry and turning 18 executive boxes – including Deeney’s – into sleeping pods. Executive chairman Scott Duxbury was among the first to break ranks and register Watford’s emphatic opposition to any Premier League resumption being played out on neutral grounds.
And Deeney has led from the front in football’s suspicion of the real motives behind Project Restart.
He was an impressive voice on the captains’ virtual hangout to establish #Playerstogether, the dressing room whip-round for NHS heroes, which proved an unplayable return of serve to politicians’ cheap shots about footballers’ wealth.
And Deeney’s questions about black players being more susceptible to Covid-19, and access to more comprehensive testing, have been met so far with deafening silence – even though 25 per cent of professional clubs’ squads are now of BAME origin.
Before Mariappa’s shock result – and two other Watford staff testing positive – Deeney said: “I can’t get a haircut until July, but I can go in a penalty box with 19 other people and jump for a header? Nobody could answer the questions – not because they didn’t want to, just because they don’t know the information.
“It only takes one person to be infected within the group and I don’t want to be bringing that home.
“My son is five months old, he had breathing difficulties, so I don’t want to put him in more danger.”
It is understood Watford have no problem with Deeney’s reluctance to train, and no action will be taken against others doing so.
Pearson will follow Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s belief – no player will be forced to train if he does not feel safe – after going public with his own doubts earlier this month.
“God forbid we have a fatality,” warned Pearson.
“People are closing their eyes to the threat. To ignore the possibilities is foolhardy.
“If players feel there are too many question marks, we respect their decision. It’s important that they feel able to make a decision like that.”
Watford’s unease about Project Restart was once viewed by fans with agendas as the naked self-interest of a club above the relegation zone’s dotted line by one goal.
But Mariappa’s positive test, Deeney’s outspoken leadership and Pearson’s fears have now brought the true situation into the full glare of public opinion.