No new Covid-19 cases in squad
ALL of Grimsby Town’s squad have returned negative tests for coronavirus as the EFL begins its new policy to combat the rise in infections. Sides in the Championship, League One and League Two have not been subject to regular Covid-19 testing so far this season, unlike the Premier League where players are tested twice a week.
Instead, the EFL have relied on medical advice that protocols for training and match days would be enough to protect clubs from infections.
Among some of the rules put in place this season, changing rooms and canteens at training grounds have to be closed, multiple coaches should be used if possible for travel to help with social distancing, while players are encouraged to avoid car sharing.
Despite the strict guidelines in place, a number of outbreaks have occurred in the EFL in recent weeks, with a large number of games being postponed as a result.
The number of games falling victim to outbreaks has led to calls for a break in the season, while there are concerns that the 2020/21 campaign may have to be curtailed like the previous season in Leagues One and Two.
The EFL season is set to continue though, with the Government confirming on Monday that elite sport will continue as England once again goes into lockdown, with cases across the country rising.
And the Football League’s governing body has now elected to undergo regular testing, with clubs now having to test players twice a week. The cost of testing has previously proved an issue, and was one of the main stumbling blocks to last season resuming, with clubs facing a weekly bill of tens of thousands of pounds due to a cost of between £100 and £150 per test.
The cost though is expected to be taken from central funds, taking the financial pressure off clubs.
And after the first round of testing, Town’s players have been confirmed as being free from Covid-19. Goalkeeper and club captain James McKeown has been in selfisolation, but is hoped to be able to return for this weekend’s clash against Port Vale.
The news will come me as a big bo boost to the Mariners, who sit in the relegation zone of League Two, and for whom another curtailment of the season could prove fatal to their chances of staying in the EFL. Rochdale chief executive David Bottomley though has warned that a break in the current campaign is “inevitable” with more and more players testing positive for the virus. “Surely just for a month until the vaccine starts to get rolled out, we could have a break,” Bottomley told BBC Radio Manchester. “[Suspending the league] is inevitable. Hospitals across the UK are being told they are to face a massive surge in Covid cases so who are we in football to be trying to add to that situation?
“My fear, in common with that of a number of other League One chief executives I spoke to on Friday, is that there will be so many players test positive that we’ll almost have to suspend the season. “Human life is far more important than whether we play football matches, surely. I’m talking from personal experience. My 85-year-old mother has tested positive and has been in hospital from the beginning of December with Covid.”