Championship return feels ‘rushed’ – Sollbauer
BARNSLEY defender Michael Sollbauer has revealed that he harbours reservations about the Championship’s provisional return date of June 20 and feels that players are being rushed back to competitive football.
The Reds returned to full contact work on Wednesday – just a week and a half after beginning non-contact training in small groups on May 25.
If the second-tier recommences in two-and-a-half weeks time, players will have been back in training under a month – which contrasts markedly with the situation in his native Austria.
The Austrian Bundesliga returned to action this week, with players having been in various forms of training since April 20 -– in a country where the infection and death rates from Covid-19 are far lower than in England.
Sollbauer said: “It feels like it is a little bit rushed. I spoke to some Austrian guys about the situation and they also asked me when do we start with training and I told them the middle to the end of May and we want to start in (around) the middle of June.
“They asked: ‘How is this possible?’ In Austria, they started training in the middle of April and they start to play now. They have had one-and-a-half months.
“It feels like this is a little bit of a rush and from what I heard from Germany and Austria, they have always spoken about needing a lot of time to prepare for the guys and there being a high risk of injuries.
“Here in the UK, it feels like there’s not enough time to prepare.”
Sollbauer has returned to England without his young family, who remain in Austria and he admits that they have concerns about his safety, while understanding his need to get back to work.
He added: “For me, it is especially hard as I am not together with my family. The situation in
Austria is much better – they can go and do whatever they want. I had to take this decision and we’ll find a way to work with it.
“They always ask me every day if everything is fine and have also heard about the (Covid-19) cases in the Championship and have some worries about the situation. They (UK cases) go a little bit down, but are still a little bit high.
“Of course, they worry about that I am back here, but they understand because I have a contract here.”