City boss Taylor calls for more Covid tests
EXETER City manager Matt Taylor said that he and his squad would be much more comfortable if regular coronavirus testing was reinstated - but that the club cannot afford to do it.
EFL clubs are no longer mandated to have their players regularly tested, unlike in the run-up to last season’s play-offs when the squad were tested twice a week.
Tests cost about £100 each, and while the EFL helped to foot the bill for the play-off campaign, they have said they won’t be doing so for the full league season.
While the most recent round of covid testing carried out at the club earlier this month received a full set of negative results, players at other clubs have recently tested positive, including at Leyton Orient, Plymouth Argyle, and Bristol Rovers - with a positive test from a player at the Gas leading to Tuesday’s planned friendly with the Grecians being called off.
Leyton Orient’s EFL Cup game with Tottenham was called off after several of the squad tested positive, but they were only carried out after the Premier League club paid for them.
“I know my players and staff would be more comfortable with regular testing, but who foots the bill?” the Grecians boss said, speaking to the media on Thursday morning.
“In terms of the play-off campaign, the EFL contributed to that testing protocol, but they’ve said they won’t do that moving forward in terms of the league campaign,” he added.
“Leyton Orient were only able to get tested because Tottenham offered to pay for it, which shows you the cost involved for lower-league clubs.
“We can’t afford to test continuously, certainly not twice a week. It is puts us in not a dangerous position, but an unknown, as we are working, we are active, we are travelling to Mansfield and we don’t know if we have any positive tests. I know Mansfield were tested, but did they have to pay and is that a chunk of the budget gone?”
Taylor said that he hasn’t got the answers as to how things should move forward, but that with increasing numbers of cases nationally, it was likely that more players over the cause of the season would test positive.
He added: “We wish everyone who has tested positive well. We have to be mindful of what that symptoms are and when they come, what the reaction is, and make sure players are adhering to the rules and regulations, and making the training ground as safe as possible.
“I cannot stop players going out to the shops and maybe coming into contact with someone, but we are influencing them the best we can, telling them to wear gloves and masks where appropriate, and at the right moments, and avoid social occasions with people outside of their bubble, but I cannot control them too much. We are still not providing drinks bottles or food, still washing their own kit, so tried to do all we can.”
Plymouth Argyle saw one member of staff and one player test positive this week after tests were carried out following their 3-2 defeat to Leyton Orient last week.
Argyle boss Ryan Lowe said: “It was a bit of a worry to be honest. We as a football club have done everything by the letter of the book. Whether Orient have I don’t know, but I don’t want to rub salt into the wound because we don’t know what’s happened.
“But we feel we should be going to any stadium and it should be the safest place to go and it certainly is at Home Park. The protocols have been top draw. The football club needs to take credit for that.
“When I found out we needed to be tested, yeah it was a worry because what happens if there had been six or seven players that had gone down with it? Was I concerned about that? Yes I definitely was.
“We’ll follow the protocol, we’ll support the regulations and do what we have to do and we look forward to getting everyone back as soon as possible.”