"How match-fit will players be if the season commences, as we all hope it will, by mid-June?"
Saturday 18 April 2020 11:06, UK
West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady believes many questions need to be answered about how the Premier League season can be resumed.
It was suggested at a meeting of the 20 Premier League clubs on Friday that the campaign could restart on June 8, with the fixture list wrapped up in a 40-day period.
There have been claims that clubs were told that domestic seasons must end by July 31 and the 2020-21 campaign must start by the first week of September at the latest.
Brady feels there are complex questions over training, testing of players, hygiene and medical protocols which need to be resolved with the lockdown in place until at least May 7.
Writing in her column in The Sun, Brady said: "Players will have been able to retain some physical fitness at home.
"But if social-distancing rules are still in place, physical match-play training will not be allowed - you can't tackle from two metres away.
"So, how match-fit will players be if the season commences, as we all hope it will, by mid-June?"
Brady questioned how Premier League clubs could regularly test players for coronavirus when the same situation is not yet in place for all NHS workers, and highlighted a potential unfairness in some squads having a number of players in self-isolation.
"Everyone at the stadium - and even behind closed doors this is about 300-500 people - including security, staff, medical officers, players, referees and media, will have to have temperature checks, fill out health questionnaires and observe social distancing," she wrote.
"Then there is the issue of injuries. All this is manageable but what if a player gets injured, where do we send him?
"It can't be to an NHS hospital that is already under pressure and private hospitals are carrying out NHS procedures and not taking in injured footballers. So then what?"
