Medical plans to be revealed

PLAYERS and managers will be presented with medical protocols related to the Premier League’s Project Restart next week.

The English top flight is working on plans to complete the 2019-20 season amid the coronavirus pandemic, dependent on Government advice.

League Managers

Association chief executive Richard Bevan said there was no suggestion players or managers were being coerced into a restart and that plans to ensure safety - including testing procedures - would be outlined next week.

He said: “Next week the medical and operational protocols are going to be presented to the managers and the players.

“Hopefully there will be solutions that create this safe environment. In the meantime we’re staying very open-minded and, as always, the managers take their responsibility to the game very seriously on all these issues.”

Bevan said he was expecting to receive the protocols in document form today, ahead of the meeting next week.

He added: “It covers testing, tracking, PPE (personal protective equipment) available, clear guidelines on social distancing and obviously a safe environment to train and play.

“There will be guidance on cardiology, mental and emotional wellbeing and I think the message is health is the guiding principle to any decision-making.”

A seven-page document, drawn up by the Premier League’s director of football Richard Garlick, talks about players wearing masks or snoods at training.

Epidemiologist Rowland Kao said last month that masks were a ‘sensible’ precaution.

But Brighton striker Glenn Murray branded the idea of wearing face masks as

‘farcical’.

It has been reported club doctors have written to Garlick and the league’s medical adviser Mark Gillett asking 100 questions concerning return-toplay protocols.