Lennon: We need a Covid contingency
NEIL LENNON last night insisted the whole of Scottish football must make contingency plans to cope with a second Covid spike.
And the Celtic boss admitted it would be “unpalatable” and “not good for the game” to have the virus wreck a second successive
season. Lennon’s team face St Mirren tonight in a game postponed a month ago due to a protocol breach by Boli Bolingoli.
And Jim Goodwin’s side were hit badly by the pandemic before their weekend defeat to Hibs, losing three goalkeepers.
With Hamilton having three more employees test positive and cases on the rise across society, Scottish football is braced for more potential ly damaging disruption.
Lennon said: “It’s a worry. People are sometimes going to get this virus whether they’re doing the right things or not.
“You just have to have contingency plans in place. I’m not saying St Mirren didn’t but that’s totally out of the blue what happened to them.
“What happened to us was out of the blue.
“Everyone is learning as we go along with this thing, whether it is football clubs, boards, associations or governments.
“Things can change all the time, whether that’s the virus itself or the conditions you live under and abide by.”
Last season was curtailed with two months to go due to the pandemic and, on the nightmare prospect of it happening again, Lennon added: “I don’t think that’s what anybody wants.
“To do it once probably wasn’t satisfactory to anyone. But for it to happen again would be unpalatable and not good for the game.
“You want to avoid it but, in my own view, we’ll probably get a second spike of this in society, because it seems to be the way these things pan out.
“We’re going to have to try to live with it the best we can. People have to try to get back to as normal a life as possible, even though things aren’t normal, without being reckless.”
St Mirren were forced to play the Hibs game despite the keeper shortage and their former chairman Stewart Gilmour insisted
Celtic or Rangers would never have been put in the same situation.
But Lennon said: “It’s unprecedented, really. The chances of that happening are thousands to one.
“I ’m not convinced calling the game off would have been an ideal scenario either. But then I totally sympathise with Jim’s situation. It obviously had an effect on their result.”
Inst ead , Lennon focused on sending goodwill messages to those affected and said: “First of all, I’m hoping the guys recover. We send our best wishes from Celtic.
“Players are young, fit and healthy enough to overcome this with isolation, with the help in place and move on.
“Thankfully we have had plenty of testing and have all been negative. If anyone should get it, hopefully we’ll overcome it individually and move on.”
Lennon also insists it is important to keep tabs on the mental wellbeing of players as they try to live their lives in club bubbles.
He added: “You are always looking for signs via their body language. In the main, touch wood, we’ve been fine with that.
“We are wary of the mental state of players and have chats with them individually and collectively.
“They’re human beings. A lot were on international duty and found it difficult because they are away from home.
“When they came back we assessed them physically and mentally and they all seemed OK.
“You have to take the human element into the equation. You can’t just say, ‘Get on with it, you’re being paid well’.”