Hibs boss baffled by Covid rule

HIBERNIAN boss Jack Ross insists he was baffled after the SFA and Scottish Government instructed key midfielder Alex Gogic to self-isolate for ten days after returning what proved to be a false positive Covid test. The Easter Road club did not train on Saturday as a result and, although follow-up tests turned out negative, Gogic still had to miss yesterday’s 1-0 home defeat to Aberdeen. An angry Ross could not understand why the player was unable to play in those circumstances — and accused the SFA of leaving Hibs in the dark over whether they were allowed to train following a false positive for a single

player. Gogic will also miss his first international call-up with Cyprus.

Speaking after yesterday’s match, the Hibs boss said: ‘I don’t think it would be the case for anybody in any other profession that they wouldn’t be able to go to their work, having had a negative NHS Covid test. The rules are there.

‘What I will say is that there are some big games coming up in Scotland soon. If there is a recurrence of this and a player with two negative tests comes out of the game, then it will be interesting to see the fall-out from that, if that was to happen.

‘We have tests privately, we do that. He (Gogic, pictured) had one test that came back and meant we had to re-test him.

‘He was re-tested privately and through the NHS, which is the guidelines, and both returned negative.

‘His first test result was at a level that he was never infectious. I have a player who was never infectious, who had two negative tests, that can’t play. ‘I would imagine that these guidelines were maybe put in place at a different stage of the lockdown for the general public.

‘So when we spoke about football being afforded special privileges to return to work, we had to acknowledge that was the case because we were able to return to training at a very different stage in everyone else’s life.

‘Now I think we’re at a different stage. So I can’t quite comprehend how every other person returning test results like that would be free to go to their work.

‘It’s his work, not only at club football but at international football — and he’s not going to be able to do that.’

Ross claimed there had been a lack of clarity from the SFA over whether his team were allowed to train on Saturday.

‘The length of time it took us to get clarity from the SFA was not good,’ he said.

‘I would have assumed they would have had protocol in place to give a club quick answers in this situation — because I would have anticipated this would have come around, because we’re testing a lot.

‘If the infection rate through society is increasing, then there is a strong possibility that a footballer is going to test positive at some point.

‘So I would have expected them to have some sort of checklist that says this is what you do.

‘It took us a long time to get answers to whether we could train, what we could do, what happens to the player, etc.

‘Late afternoon on Friday we found out (the test result) — and at 10.30 Friday evening I still did not know whether I could train on Saturday.

‘I think that’s a long time to get an answer on a pretty straightforward question.

‘We never really got clarity on it. We made the decision ourselves. We got a recommendation that perhaps we shouldn’t train but that was not definitive.

‘We made the decision as a club and I made the decision as a manager. They gave some guidance that said you may be able to train in the afternoon. ‘But I think that perhaps underestimates the complexities in doing that. It’s not as simple as just giving the boys a whistle and they all appear on the pitch. ‘So we made the decision not to train — and that was the right decision because we wouldn’t have had the go-ahead to do so.’ Ross found a sympathetic ear in Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes, who admitted: ‘There is trepidation every time there is a test.

‘We keep our goalkeepers in separate dressing rooms, so if one goes down they don’t all go down. We try to keep separate 15-minute intervals for breaks and we’re not together at any real point.

‘We know with the track and trace system that, if one goes down, he can take three or four with him. Every time my medical team sends me an email and it says everyone is negative, it’s a sigh of relief.

‘We had one player in the build-up to the Rangers game who went down in exactly the same way. He had a false positive then two negatives but had to isolate.

‘The danger of course is when one really goes down and you fear you could lose three or four.’

Ross confirmed, meanwhile, that Jamie Murphy had been signed from Rangers on an initial loan deal in anticipation of Irish winger Daryl Horgan completing a move to ‘a club in England’ during the international break.