Gerhard Struber wants timetable so Barnsley can complete their season

Struber returned from Austria last Friday to start preparations for a re-commencement of training, with Barnsley hopeful that players will be able to work in small groups from Monday.

A host of medical and social distancing protocols, based around government guidelines for Covid-19, have been distributed to clubs, but they have yet to receive a target restart date .

Struber, whose players will be tested for coronavirus today, said: “Everyone is back and we hope that every single player is ready for Monday and healthy.

“I hope we can think about football and start maybe in the middle of June and hope we have the numbers down in infections.

“This (restart date) is the biggest responsibility for the EFL now and the biggest duty that they can give us right now is a timed structure when we have the first game and they give us the orientation.

“In the last few weeks, they have given every club many letters in terms of medical guidelines.

“But what we need right now is a game plan and a time structure and also a clear plan if they cancel the league and what is the situation with promotion and relegation.

“I think they have had so (much) time and no clear decision and I don’t understand the EFL in this case.”

Struber believes that players will need a minimum of four weeks preparation time ahead of any return to Championship action and has also been consistent in his view that it would be unfair to relegate teams if it is not completed.

“If we start on Monday with training, we need a minimum of four weeks (total preparation),” the former Wolfsberger AFC head coach added.

“If we start on June 25, this is a realistic time to prepare the boys. We need a minimum of three weeks with the boys together in training.

“When we don’t have no three weeks with the boys, the risk for injuries is very high.

“The season has no value if we cannot end with 46 games in the league.”

Editor’s note: First and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you. James Mitchinson, Editor