STIRRING HORNETS
IT had been 68 days but the waiting was finally over. Yesterday, the Liverpool first team returned to the club’s Melwood training base – outside of individual visits – for the first time since March 13.
And manager Jurgen Klopp, whose side lead the Premier League by 25 points, said it felt like his first day at school. “The morning started really well,” said Klopp. “I woke up even earlier than usual, and then realised it is my first day. It felt like the first day at school – for me, it was
46 years ago, but it must have been similar.
“I dressed myself in my uniform again – and for the right reason, for going to training.
“I drove to Melwood and was really happy to see all the boys.”
Reds’ stars began arriving before 10am in groups of five, staggered throughout the day (Andy Robertson, above). Melwood is operating a one-way system to avoid players coming within two metres of each other in the first phase of the Premier League’s return protocol.
They went through some ball work drills and runs, to acclimatise again to working with footballs, while the keepers worked in their own group.
Klopp, 52, said: “It’s a pre-season for us. We don’t know how long and we will not have test games or friendlies. Maybe we can organise it between us when we are allowed to, but it will not be the same as other pre-seasons.
CHRIS WILDER says Sheffield United’s return to training has needed “military precision” – given their limited resources.
The Blades have just two pitches at their Shirecliffe complex,
Usually our players have two or three weeks’ holiday a year, now they had nine weeks off, but not a holiday.
“That’s good from one point of view – finally they got a real rest.
“We have to make sure we are as fit as possible for the first match, even for the second. And probably 100 per cent for the third. But it depends how long we will get (before the season starts).”
Klopp revealed Liverpool’s coaching staff have not ordered the players back and gave them the option to avoid returning to work if they did not feel it was safe.
He said: “It is the players’ choice and that is clear.
“I said before the session, ‘You are here on free will. Usually you sign a contract and have to be in when I tell you. But in this case, if you don’t feel safe, you don’t have to be here’.
“There are no restrictions, no punishment, nothing. It’s their own decision and we respect that 100 per cent. We would never put anybody in danger. Yes, we love football, yes, it’s our job, but it’s not more important than our lives or those of other people.”
The Premier League are aiming for football to resume on June 12, but that date has not been confirmed.
And Klopp added: “From a sports science point of view, it is a challenge to prepare for something when you don’t know when it will happen.
“But I enjoy these problems much more than the ones I have had (with training) in the last few weeks.”
God forbid we have a fatality. To ignore the possibility is foolhardy
IT took Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta’s revelation that he had contracted coronavirus for English football to hit the emergency brake.
And, 10 weeks on, the epicentre of the Premier League’s pandemic crisis is back in Bell Lane, next door to the Gunners’ nerve centre at the London Colney training ground.
Long-serving Hornets defender Adrian Mariappa’s admission that he tested positive for Covid-19 in the blanket screening of players earlier this week did not just shock the international.
It was vindication of Watford captain Troy Deeney’s refusal to return to training because of his grave reservations about becoming a carrier of the virus.
Not for the first time, Deeney suffered abuse on social media, even though his fivemonth-old son would be in the high-risk category after suffering infant respiratory difficulties.
But now that Mariappa (above) – one of his closest friends in the game – has tested positive, it’s a potential game-changer in football’s haste for the show to resume.
Jamaican
And, as manager Nigel Pearson observed in his first training session since March 11, from behind a black mask, the message from Watford was clear: Don’t play games with our safety. Mariappa, 33, was shocked to be one of six positive tests out of 748 conducted at the start of this week because he insists he has led a blameless lifestyle since sport’s belated shutdown two months ago.
He said: “It’s quite scary how you can feel absolutely fine and not really have left the house – and yet still get the virus.
“The club doctor called to tell me and, to be honest, I