Dale doctor calls for season to stop amid rise in Covid cases
ROCHDALE’S club doctor has called on the football season to be halted as cases of coronavirus rise.
Dr Wes Tensel spoke out as a number of football clubs including Rochdale and Manchester City have had matches called off after positive cases were revealed.
It comes as Rochdale joins the rest of Greater Manchester in coronavirus restrictions tier 4 - following an announcement on Wednesday afternoon.
Dr Tensel, who also works as a GP, said he believes the season should be postponed, as more clubs are hit by outbreaks.
“This is my opinion as a doctor,” he told the PA news agency.
“Some people will disagree, some won’t, this is just my opinion based on what I have seen working in the NHS and at a football club. As a club we try to minimise the spread of Covid as much as possible, but we have heard about this new strain which is more transmissible. Does it make sense for clubs to be travelling across tiers when other people are unable to see their relatives in another tier over Christmas?
“People could only see their loved ones outside in a park, but a whole coachload of footballers can go up and down the country as they wish.
“That is my feeling as a doctor; as a football fan I don’t want it to stop. But I am trying to see the bigger picture. A lot of people have been affected this year, they have not been able to go on holiday and things, it must be a bit frustrating for them and they must ask, ‘Why are footballers allowed to go all over the place?’
“If the government were to put us in another lockdown like we had with the very first one where it was just essential travel, then football should also stop as well.
“If they carry on with tiers, the fact that everything the government have done so far the cases are still increasing, I would have thought football probably should be postponed.”
“Footballers travelling around the country are not causing spikes in different tiers but they can still pass it on to their loved ones because the football bubble they are in bursts every time they go home. There are consequences outside of the football pitch.”
In April, Dr Tensel and his counterpart at Oldham Athletic, Dr Jim Weems, both volunteered to work at a COVID-19 unit at Leigh Infirmary.
Rochdale’s infections rose by 7 per cent in the latest figures to 224.8 cases per 100,000. While Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has seen a death total of 1,141 from throughout the pandemic - as of Christmas Eve. ●●DALE chief executive backs calls for season to be suspended - See Sport